Runaways
by ShinySheepGhost001
Summary: Black Evening and Echoes Sung at Moon's Rising have a foster mother in common. But everyone knows absol attract disaster, so it was only a matter of time until Evening was driven out. With no trainer and no pack, they'll have to rely on one another to protect themselves and their newborn kits. Updates on firsts and sixteenths.
1. Strangers in the Mountain

**Part One - Under the Mountain**

 **Chapter One - Strangers in the Mountain**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Evening stirred awake.

When he opened his eyes, it was just as dark as if he'd never opened them. He sparked light on the smooth black stone on his forehead, illuminating the area. With caution, he observed the surrounding area. It was rocky, cave-like. He turned back to the rocks that were used to kill him, and almost did. Then the moments before he'd passed out met his mind.

 _Where's my mate?!_

Evening searched under the rocks for his mate, praying she'd made it, as she would have his children. He called her name, talked to her about their new life, his hopes and dreams for them and their children, as he searched.

"I'll protect them with all my heart and soul. They'll be strong." He smashed a rock under his paws in anger, cursing himself for being so foolish as to drag her into this. But what could he have done? Let them brainwash her into believing he was evil? Let his children grow up with no father? Grow up with the ghost of his evil spirit haunting them throughout his life?

No, they won't. She won't. He won't.

A feline whimper echoed through the cave. Evening called her name again and she weakly responded.

"I'm coming! You'll be all right!" The absol darted to her location, pushing aside the rocks in his way. He found the weavile curled up under the rocks around where he woke up.

"My leg's hurting," she whimpered. "I-I can't feel it from the knee down…" Her face seemed pale. "What were you thinking?! Dragging me into this?!"

"Could I have left you there?!" he huffed, shuffling through the rocks to find the one on his mate's leg. "You heard what the Council said! I was guilty, so I had to die. Would you want our children to never meet their father and hear about how evil he was? Would you want to admit how your children look uncannily like me in their features and suffer under this…this _stigma_?" He found the rock causing his mate's pain and promptly shattered it. "Would you have wanted that?"

She gave no answer.

"Here, try to crawl on my back. I'll carry you until we find some shelter far away from the moor." He crouched down and helped his mate onto his back.

"Where are we?" the quadrupedal weavile asked, laying her head on his shoulders.

He tasted the air for hostile scents, then continued onward when he found none. "In the mountain west of the moor, at least a route to it. There seems to be a lot of cold pokémon here, including some earth ones. The cryogonal and boldore shouldn't be too much of a problem, but heatmor may become hassles should we encounter them…"

The weavile gently dug her claws into his skin. "Are we going to be okay?"

Evening paused, letting her words soak in.

He then spoke. "Pray we will."

* * *

Hours of walking passed and the two pokémon grew weaker. Evening remembered he hadn't eaten since the night before the rockslide. He didn't know whether Echoes had eaten or not, but he assumed she hadn't eaten in a while either.

"Evening, I'm getting hungry…" Echoes mumbled. "And I'm parched…"

"I know, Echoes, I hear water close by. We'll take a break there."

Within a moment, they came upon the stream, quietly rippling and gurgling as it flowed through the mountain. A small crevice to the outside world allowed tiny rays of light to filter into the grotto. A hardy berry bush grew by the stream, its roots dug into the rocks. A tiny vine wrapped up around the bush, nearly choking it. Evening set Echoes down next to the bush, taking great care not to harm her leg. Beside the stream, they watered and cleaned themselves and ate the berries.

"Let me have a look at that leg." Evening asked after cleaning himself. "Are you comfortable?"

Echoes nodded and observed her leg. "Have you ever set in or splinted a broken limb?"

The absol sighed. "Unfortunately, no, but I'll try… I'd seen Siara set in a few broken limbs and I watched frequently from a vantage point, but I've never actually set one in myself before or helped splinting. Let's see if I can use one of the dead branches here as a splint and the vines to tie it… It doesn't look or smell like poison ivy, so I'll do what I can."

She remained silent, but nodded. With every bit of delicacy, Evening stretched her hind leg out. She cried, but grit her teeth to muffle it.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, it just hurts." Echoes flared her head feathers out. "Hurry up, please…"

Evening straightened out her leg the best he could and tied the splint on, taking great care not to hurt his mate.

"You done?" she asked.

"Yes, I believe so…" the absol said, eyeing the leg. "Sorry I don't know any more about this… It's another thing I should've asked Siara about."

Echoes flicked her gaze to the berry bush. "Don't those berries improve healing?"

He studied the berries and assessed his condition. "I think so, but I don't feel any different."

"I think it takes some time for them to set in." She brightened. "Hey, Siara taught me how to make a healing poultice when all I've got is just berries. I can show you how to make some for my leg. Get a berry and a big leaf first."

Evening plucked a berry and a leaf from the bush and sat beside his mate. "What do you want me to do?"

"Chew it up, but don't swallow it."

Without a word, he took a small bite of the fruit. The firmness made it slightly harder to bite and chew, but he did and nodded when he'd chewed a bit.

"Is it thick and pulpy-not too liquidy?"

Nod.

"Okay, now spit it on the leaf."

He did. "Now what?"

"Make some more until I let you know it's enough."

Evening continued the process and chewed through four bitefuls until Echoes declared it enough.

"Now slather it on my leg."

The absol poured some of the poultice on her leg and groomed it into her skin and fur. "Is that it?"

"I think so. I guess the only thing we can do is wait."

"I'll go search for a place to stay in. You rest up and try not to move, okay?"

"I have my long-range moves just in case. I'll be fine."

Evening nodded, then followed down a tunnel.

* * *

Three days later, Evening brought back a dead pidove to his mate to eat. She would soon have her eggs, and that gave a slight worry to both.

"Evening," Echoes said. "This mountain doesn't feel safe. How about we go down south with the tall brushes you're talking about?"

Evening lifted his head. "There are humans crawling all over there with that tower. What if one of them happened to catch me, or you, or one of our children?" He tapped his claws on the rocky ground beneath him. "This mountain is a fortress. Humans rarely get in here, and not this deep."

"And if humans do get in here, they have a full team of six and are exceptionally skilled." Echoes gave him a hard glare, her frosty blue eyes ice-cold. "Evening, you won't be able to last forever if anyone were to hunt after you."

"And this is why we're staying here." he snapped. "The strong pokémon will divert their attention. Even though we're probably the only absol and weavile here―" he looked down at her belly "―in this moment, there are dozens of beartic and boldore and onix. We can always run away."

Echoes slowly nodded. "And what if we aren't fast enough?"

"It's better than hiding in plain sight! If we hide in the brushes, one of us could easily be captured!" His voice sounded desperate. "As of now, this is our best hiding place."

"I don't think under a rock is the best place to raise sneasels. I was born and raised in the snowy fields where I could run and frolic to my heart's content. This place feels like I'm isolated from the world."

He stared at her with blazing red eyes. "And we need to be isolated if our children are to be safe."

She thumped her tails on the ground. "Fine, you're the father, you have final say." She set her head in her paws. "Before the execution, I got a talk with Siara and she said the clutch should arrive in two weeks. She estimated my clutch would have four to seven eggs."

Evening sat beside her. "What are we going to name them?"

"In the snowy fields, our parents gave us names based off what our personalities were like after we hatched. Mine was Echoes Sung at Moon's Rising. Mother said she named me after the echoes of our pack sending messages and how I'd respond to them at night. She said I would've been a wonderful rallier." She eyed his face. "What were you called in your pack?"

"Us absols were named by our skullkeeper." He paused. "Did your pack have a skullkeeper?"

"I've never heard of a skullkeeper."

"Well, an absol in the pack would be one to take the skulls from our deceased and put them in a special place where he or she learns the name of the absol the skull belonged to. One month after a clutch hatches, the cubs are brought to the skullkeeper, who names them after our ancestors. Mine was Black Evening." He shrugged. "I guess we can name them later on, but what kind of names?"

"Evening, we'll name them when we name them. We don't even know how many there are or what their genders are or what their personalities are like. When we name them, their names will be perfect."

Evening softly smiled. "All right." The absol looked at the battered and bloody leg. "Are you sure I set that in properly? Are you comfortable?"

"Yes, Evening, I'm fine," Echoes assured. "I'll be fine."


	2. Enemies of the Mountain

**Chapter Two - Enemies of the Mountain**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

The pair found a much more permanent dwelling, a small grotto with a tiny stream flowing through it. The mouth of the grotto wasn't too far deep into the tunnel system under the mountain. An opening on the side of the mountain allowed pokémon to come out of the tunnel system and onto the mountainside.

Life under the mountain grew mundane. Every day, Evening would bring back a small scrap of food for Echoes, now dutifully protecting seven shiny black eggs. On the day they came, she said it would take four months for them to hatch.

Four months for something to happen to them.

The first month dragged by, relieving father and mother of no evil, but the second month seemed to drag itself even slower.

Every day, just after sunup and just before sundown, Evening would walk along the borders, marking them and checking for potential threats. He caught whiffs of his neighbors' scents, but had never seen any of them.

Their small bit of territory included a berry garden with ten different kinds of berries. A river fork curved around most of their borders, save for the outside. Down the center of their territory, a stream flowed. It pooled between the den and garden. The pool was shallow, barely covering Evening's paws. Sometimes Echoes would rest in the pool while Evening protected the eggs.

Out of the mountain, their territory ended on a cliff a short walk away. This border Evening only checked on midday, during the brightest and warmest part of the day.

Evening found himself daydreaming during his morning border route, but snapped out of it as he found someone near the lower end of the borders.

"Can I help you?" the absol asked one of the strangers.

"Yes, you can," this stranger, a husky beartic with three others behind him said. "Your borders cross into Eastern beartic territory."

"If this is your territory, why haven't you regulated them better?" Evening questioned. "Since you have failed to regulate your own borders, I've claimed this territory for myself. Good day, Beartic." He pressed on with his patrol, but the lead beartic stood in front of him.

"Look, Absol, we need this land to survive. We have cubs to feed and elderly to look after."

"Then you should look elsewhere. This is my land now."

Evening started to walk, but the beartic stopped him again. "Our land stops with the river. If you give us all that land, we will leave you in peace. Surely, there is enough there for you to survive on."

"No one will make me give back this land. You lost it in failing to regulate it, so now it's mine."

The beartic growled. "If you do not give it back by the full moon, there will be consequences, Absol." The beartic let Evening by, but after a firm glare, he knew keeping the land would be much harder.

Every morning and evening as Evening patrolled the borders after that incident, he met the glares of beartic, all twelve from the Eastern sleuth. He told Echoes about it, but she had no advice to give. They decided to keep their land, making sure nothing other than prey got in or out.

Yet both felt the looming presence of the beartic as the full moon arose.

"We should hide the eggs," Evening insisted. "Somewhere safe where we won't have to worry about them. I have a feeling that the beartic will come here to confront me."

"There's a groove where some plants are growing. We can hide them behind there." Echoes pulled aside a hanging plant to show a groove large enough for all seven eggs. "This will be safe."

The two of them hid the eggs, taking great care not to drop one or crack a shell. After moving the plants back in place, they sat… and waited.

"What does this beartic want with us?" Echoes asked.

"He doesn't know you exist. He may be spiteful and want his land back." Evening sighed. "He's not going to get it. He never will. Not while I'm alive."

The weavile shot a worried look at him with wide blue eyes. "You think he may kill you?"

"No, not when he figures out I have a mate." Evening laid down beside her. "I'm tired… I'd like to rest."

Echoes placed a paw on his side. "Rest."

Evening drifted into a light doze when Echoes prodded his side. "Get up," she said. "They're coming."

The two waited quietly as the lead beartic along with two others shuffled into the area near the den. The leader seemed slightly surprised as he eyed Echoes. They sat in front of the two smaller pokémon, their leader closest to them. "Good evening, Absol, Weavile."

Both nodded back, but said nothing.

"I see we've reached a disagreement where we both want this stretch of land." the leader said.

"You're not going to have it, Beartic." Evening growled, his fur fluffing up ever so slightly.

"I'm not going to take it back. Instead, I'll let you keep it."

When he said nothing more, the absol and weavile warily eyed each other. "There has to be some sort of catch." Evening pointed out.

"Yes, Absol, there is a catch. Every day, you need to give us one piece of prey and two berries. We will come every day at sundown to look over your prey and berries and take whichever we find suitable."

Evening and Echoes looked at each other, as if telepathically communicating. Echoes flared her headdress out, and Evening nodded. "We're not going to conform to your demands. This is our land and we run it as we wish. You have no right to interfere with our business. We ask you to leave and not bother us with your petty scare tactics anymore."

The lead beartic laughed, a long, throaty laugh. "They're demands for a reason. You are going to give me the prey and berries, whether you like doing it or not. I could always increase your tribute."

"You're not going to because we're not going to pay. You're a coward and you should leave my land before I make you."

"Back your words with force and then I'll be scared."

Evening gently tapped Echoes's tail with his while he stood. When he arose to his full size, she slipped back into the den. "Fine… I will pay the tribute."

The three beartic seemed surprised, exchanging glances.

"But if I may," the absol added. "I wish to sing for you."

The beartic, though wary, agreed and watched. Evening began to sing a song in his ancient tongue, a song of receiving visions of disaster, a song of controlling fate and manipulating it, a song of begging forces to spite his foes.

And the forces came through, the three beartic falling to the earth, each deeply in a coma.

"To sing a song of a magnificent downfall."

Echoes peeked out of the den, flaring her headdress. She eyed the beartic lying beside Evening and then Evening himself. "What are you going to do with them?"

Evening looked down. "The song will remain in their heads and hearts for several months. I should take them to the border where the other beartic can find them."

Echoes nodded. "When you get back, tell me how the song works."

"It's simple," Evening said. "I ask for them to be put in a death-like slumber, and they sleep."

* * *

The beartic didn't interfere with Evening and Echoes for a week after he'd sung them to sleep, and life nearly returned to normal. Echoes worked on exercising her leg for usage, but couldn't quite yet. On the eighth day, the absol found himself interrupted of his border patrol once more.

"What did you do to them, Absol?" a beartic asked, standing on his side of the border.

Evening stared at the new beartic. "I put them to a long sleep. In several months, they will awaken."

"Why have you done this?"

"They were intruding. I defended my home. It's as simple as that."

"You put our leader to sleep for months. He now cannot lead."

"I am sorry, but he intruded and that was his price for interfering with me."

"You put one of our best fighters to sleep for months. He now cannot fight for us."

"Again, I am sorry."

"You put my father to sleep for months! He now cannot be there for me!"

"I am sorry, Beartic, but they intruded and threatened my home and life. Good day." Evening dipped his head and continued on.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR PROVOKING THE WRATH OF THE EASTERN BEARTIC SLEUTH!"

The absol said nothing and trotted onward.

* * *

Echoes was curled up with the eggs when Evening returned.

"I left the eggs behind the vines while I harvested what berries I could." she said, stroking three eggs with her longer tail. "Good hunting today?"

Evening nodded, setting down two patrats. "But I've angered the beartic sleuth for taking their highest-positioned beartics out of commission."

"Don't beartics usually live by themselves or in small, five-beartic groups?"

"Some find strength in numbers. Large numbers of large beasts means large territory." The absol looked back to where their borders met. "And some would sacrifice freedom for safety."

* * *

Evening was sleeping when the beartic attacked.

He awoke to a swift kick to his gut, the pain of being slammed into the wall, and sharp teeth digging into his scruff, tossing him aside.

While he laid on the cold, hard ground, the beartic placed a flexed paw on his head. "You really think you can take our lands and our leaders without any price? How foolish are you?"

Evening didn't respond, unable to speak.

"Bring the weavile over here." Evening's beartic ordered.

Another beartic carried Echoes into Evening's sights. He held her by her scruff.

"Look, Absol, you won't give us your tribute for staying on our land. I suspect it's from having another mouth to feed." Evening's beartic explained. "After today, you won't need to worry about feeding her. Then you can give your spare food to us." The beartic eyed the other two beartic standing near Echoes' beartic. "Thrash her around until she's dead."

"Even-!" Her voice was cut off by the beartic who held her scruff throwing her on the rocky ground. Her unholy screeches echoed off the walls and the small cave served to only amplify them.

Evening gripped the earth below with flexed claws. "Stop this!"

"Shut it, Absol! This is payment for messing with our sleuth!" Evening's beartic slammed the absol's jaw into the ground, sending a surge of sharp pains up his face. "Watch her die while you can do nothing to save her!"

The three beartic now held her by a limb and pulled away from each other, her free limb flailing. "Stop it!" she shrieked. "Stop! Stop!"

The anger from her torture sparked a memory of their foster mother. Evening knew it would be risky, but he wanted to keep her suffering short. He let gas boil up in his throat, slowly letting it build up while he thought of the memory.

He remembered the ninetales frequently burning him if he failed, but he'd learned how to breathe fire.

His mate's screams echoed in his mind, now focusing on the rage it built. The gas rose in his throat, now ready for setting aflame.

They seemed not to notice the acrid scent.

Now is the time.

Ignite.

The gas created a small combustion and stunned the attackers. Nearby plants and fur caught fire. Among those who caught fire writhed Echoes. Evening broke away from his beartic and stamped out the embers on his mate's fur.

"Echoes!" Evening barked, gas heavy in his throat.

Echoes rasped, but she said nothing.

Evening dragged her away from the clamor, out of the den, watching the beartic stamp out each other's burns. "I'll be back in a moment. I'll get rid of them, Echoes, I swear it!"

He turned back into their den and found three of the four beartic still dazed from the fire. "Get out of our territory!" he yelled.

The one beartic that had held him to the ground stood next to where the plants were. In his large paw, he held a shiny black object. "With all these mouths to feed, this territory won't even sustain you. You'll have starving cubs." He eyed the egg with ice-cold eyes. "I can fix that."

With malice in his eyes, the beartic smashed the egg on the hard ground. It shattered open and the tiny, underdeveloped sneasel inside, unable to survive outside its shell yet, died.

Evening wailed. A blaze in his heart burned with love and hate. He harnessed the blaze to burn the beartic, igniting the fire within his throat.

With the beartic weakened, the absol channeled the energy gathered from the hate to his claws, making them so dark they stopped reflecting light.

"You can starve and burn with Giratina for all I care." Evening hissed softly, bringing one claw dangerously close to the beartic's head. "And this could've been avoided if you hadn't mutilated my mate and slaughtered my child."

With a strong and swift stab of the dark claws, the lead beartic lived no more.

Then another died.

And a third.

And the fourth.

 _This will teach these beartic to not interfere with my family._


	3. The Grave in the Mountain

**Chapter Three - The Grave on the Mountain**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Echoes laid curled around the remaining six eggs, now protecting them while Evening left to hunt, gather, and patrol almost all day. She'd recovered a little physically from the beartic attack one month ago, but she sometimes hurt her bad leg and recoiled into a tiny ball, throwing up an icy shield. The move had become reflexive; anything could set her off, even, and most often, Evening. She often cradled the eggs in her embrace, whispering to them nothing would ever happen to them. It would take Evening a while to calm her down and get her to get rid of the shield.

As she rested, she felt a gentle scratch from one of the eggs and inspected it.

"Yes, my baby?" she whispered to one of the eggs. "Would you like to come out now?"

The egg, of course, said nothing. It remained still.

After waiting several moments for another egg to tap, Echoes returned to her usual sleeping position.

The weavile nodded off for a bit, having nothing better to do. When she awoke, she stretched her limbs and back, taking great care not to heavily disturb her leg. She paced around the walls of the small den and counted every step her forepaws took. They averaged out to forty-two steps each trip.

On her twenty-fourth trip, Evening returned from hunting, dragging in a watchog by its disfigured neck. When he set it down, he licked his lips and yawned. "That thing did not want to die. It sent me all over our borders until I finally caught its tail and killed it."

Echoes smiled. "That'll keep us fed for two days."

Evening nodded and nudged the rodent toward her. "Here, you eat first. I ate a berry before hunting."

The weavile sat near the watchog and ate, her mate now settling himself around the eggs. She ate in silence for the most part, while Evening hummed a lullaby from his pack.

"It's a song that originated from a legend." he explained. "It's a tale of how absols were created. When the great pokémon of legends created the world, some of the pokémon tampered with the world by creating storms, earthquakes, floods, and the end of life. The other pokémon allowed them to have their chaos until one of their catastrophes killed millions, pokémon and people. The chaos pokémon were instructed to create a pokémon unlike the deceptive and cunning pokémon they'd already made. They needed to make one who could foretell their disasters… and absols were created to see them in visions, but because we were made by the chaos pokémon, we've gained centuries of blame for our creators' doings."

Echoes's feathers flattened against her head. "I know Freya didn't like you very much."

"'Didn't like me very much'? That's an understatement." Evening hissed. "That ninetales _loathed_ me on sight, I remember it clearly. I arrived with my fur on-end from being scared with the travel and was greeted by Jasmine. She took me to where some pokémon were hanging out and talking and introduced me to everyone. Since I was still too young to be alone, she offered me to several caretakers for adoption. Kami and Sam already had their egg, Pyro and Sparkle were busy with a new clutch, Kerka and Sol had broken up, Jasper insisted he'd never be a good father, Mama Kaye was recovering from her daughter's death, Tusks from his mate's death, and Cashew and Siara didn't want children at the time. So that left me with Freya.

"I remember when Jasmine brought me to Freya for the first time. She took one look at me and I noticed a hint of displeasure on her face. You were curled near her belly, watching me." He gave her an affectionate look. "What did you think of me when we met?"

"I was thinking about how fluffy you were." she replied, a slight purr in her voice. "When you calmed down, you were as scrawny as a wet meowth."

Evening chuckled. "Scrawny, ey?" Echoes flashed a mischievous smile at him, now done with eating. "I'll have you know that I was a great fighter."

"I saw you out there." she said, curling around the eggs on the other side. "The council battle with Pyro was impressive with the mind tricks. What did you do, exactly?"

"Well, I made the illusions and, as you saw, enraged him by yelling insults through each of the fakes. While the fakes distracted him, I planted the mind traps at certain parts of the field. While we jumped around on the field, he would trigger the traps and get the ensuing migraine. I attacked while he was weak, and the cycle continued until he was defeated. Pyro's easy to think around. Get him mad and he won't think about what he's doing."

"He's called Hothead for a reason."

"Yep."

"And those insults were uncalled for!"

"There weren't any rules saying I couldn't. Crusher insulted Specter and won. He lost to Pyro later on, but he wasn't disqualified for insulting."

"'You couldn't beat a magikarp even if you tried'? 'Your mom's an ugly feebas that swallowed an everstone'? 'Your father's a zoroark that tricked your mom into having you'?"

"Crusher said worse."

"I know what Crusher said. And I really wish I didn't…"

Evening smiled, then laid his head in his paws. He sighed, then stared at the eggs. "Do you think I could've done something else?"

"What?"

"To save Hope. I revealed where we stashed the eggs and it cost us." He eyed over every one of the six remaining eggs. "I can't let this happen again. They're all we have… We… _I_ …lost one after only two months."

"Don't think like that." Echoes said, nosing his cheek. "We were ambushed and desperate. Did it work? Yes. Was it foolish? Perhaps." She rested her head on his paws. "But you saved the rest of us."

Evening shook his head. "No, we need to be more prepared. Aggressive pokémon like this are commonplace…we were only removed from our homelands at too early an age to learn they were everywhere."

Echoes sighed. "But there are nice ones here and there. Our packs wouldn't have formed if they weren't nice to each other."

The absol looked down at his mate. "Echoes, I've been thinking…"

When he said nothing more, she urged him on. "About?"

"About the beartic. They may return and slaughter us all. I…I think it'd be best to leave. Not leave the mountain, but to at least go elsewhere."

"But how? The eggs won't hatch in several weeks, and even then, they won't be in traveling condition until a month or two old. And six cubs? We can't carry that many, nor can they keep up with us."

"I've been searching the lands outside the territory. I've found a place not too far from here. Far enough the beartic won't find us, but close enough the cubs can travel. Only nomads roam it, so it's up for claiming."

Echoes nodded. "Okay. Maybe sometime soon, we can go explore the area together." She nudged the watchog to Evening to let him have a share of it. "While you explore there, check if there are any berry bushes. If there aren't, I can always plant new ones."

The absol smiled. "All right." He looked back at the six eggs again. "You can go explore if you want. I'll protect the eggs and have some of the watchog."

"Remember to freeze it if there's leftovers." Echoes said, rising.

"I will."

The weavile nodded, walking out of the den. Her gait carried a slight limp with it, but she had grown accustomed to it. She stepped outside of the tunnel system and into the cooling autumn mountainside. To the south, trees burned in reds and golds, showing their brilliance. Miles of wheat fields ran across the countryside.

Echoes breathed in the crisp air, filling her lungs with the chill. Memories of her early days relapsed in her mind, running in the forever-falling snow, hearing the other weaviles' cries, seeing their markings on rocks, trees, man-made objects, anything.

 _Out here is home. Out here is safe._

She trudged through the snow, finding the path to the beautiful crystal they decided would be the perfect place to bury their child. Written with her own claws, deep scratches marked the crystal:

Hope for Better Days Ahead

Echoes looked just below the engraving, where they had buried Hope. The snow had piled a little over where she laid.

 _And in the near-future, no one will know a sneasel killed in her egg lays here. Like snow in the spring, she'll melt away from memory, never to be known…_ The thought made Echoes' heart ache. _No one will know…_

Laying next to the engraving, Echoes remained there for what seemed like ages.

 _This is the closest I'll ever be to Hope… If we are moving…this may be the last time… Hope, know this, I won't lose any of your clutchmates… Your father and clutchmates and I will be there with you one day, that is truth. But let's hope not anytime soon._

Hours later, Evening came to fetch her, curled next to the crystal, freshly-laid snow powdered over her. He helped her back to their den and comforted her as she did him.


	4. The Message to the Mountain

**Chapter Four- The Message to the Mountain**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Evening ran.

He didn't know why, or where to, or anything… He just ran.

For miles, he ran, through snowy plains, wheat fields, and wooded forests, but he didn't know what he was chasing.

Or what he was running from.

After noticing a sound in the sky, he looked up, seeing a giant metal bird flying overhead. He focused on it, not knowing why, but he chased it. As he ran, the snowy plains bore sharp rocks that pierced his pawpads. The wheat fields had grown thicker, sturdier, tougher to run through, with the stalks raking his eyes. The wooded forests grew thorns and poison ivy, scratching his skin and rubbing it raw, then creating an itch that burned like fire.

But he kept running, despite his bleeding paws, nearly blinded eyes, burning skin, and aching muscles. He kept chasing the human metal bird.

And finally, after ages of running, he collapsed to the smooth, rocky ground below, heaving slow, steady breaths. The metal bird lay in front of him, roaring its intimidating cry.

 _Now what…?_ Evening asked, trying to control his breathing. _Where's Echoes…? Where did I leave the eggs…? Why is this giant scrap heap here?!_

Moments passed. He realized he was alone.

Then he found he wasn't.

 _Echoes…?_

The new individual sighed, pity in her voice. _**No, Black Evening, I am not Echoes Sung at Moon's Rising.**_

 _Oh, the Whisperer…_ Evening growled just a bit. _Where have you been?_

 ** _I have been busy,_** the Whisperer, a greater absol with a wider forehead jewel and long shoulder fur, said, though her mouth remained closed.

 _Oh,_ sure _you've been busy. You haven't said a thing since I resolved to challenge the Council._

 _ **I could not get to you. You are strong and I have other more critical disasters to tell other absols.**_

 _My family getting attacked isn't critical?!_ With anger, gas rose in Evening's throat instinctively. _What other disasters did you have to let other absols know of while keeping me in the dark about my family's safety?!_

 _ **Calm yourself, Black Evening. You do not want me to show you my true form.**_ Faint black stripes lined her white fur, the tips of her wings growing almost black. _**As soon as your children reach three months old, you need to go where these metal birds are. There, you will meet** ** _a_** **po** **kém** **on o**_ _ **f silver. She will help you. If you do not leave by then, you and your family will die.**_ She lowered herself so he could look into her strange blue eyes. **_And you must move your eggs now or they will be like Hope for Better Days Ahead._**

The Whisperer launched at him and Evening jolted awake with frost in his fur. Echoes yipped in surprise at his sudden movement.

"Are you okay, Evening?" she asked, sleepiness heavy in her voice.

"We need to move the eggs to the new place." he replied, forcing himself alert and rising to his feet. "Now."

"What? Why?"

"The Whisperer warned me." He shook the frost out of his fur and stared at the eggs. "How are we going to move them that far?"

Echoes looked at the eggs, then at Evening. "I could freeze them on your back." She studied his back, then looked back at the eggs. "You'll be able to carry three at a time… I'll help you. Lay down."

Evening laid on his belly while Echoes formed ice on his back. She shaped it to have egg-sized divots, making sure Evening was comfortable with them. After carefully placing two eggs on his back, she shaped the ice to cover them.

"Will they be okay?" Evening asked.

"They'll be fine." Echoes answered. "We only need to worry when they get too warm."

"And I thaw them by…"

"They are two different kinds of ice. You should be able to remove them easily."

Evening eyed the other four eggs, then met his mate's eyes. "I love you."

"I know," she replied, giving a quick lick to his shoulder. "Be quick."

"No promises," he said.

"No promises," she echoed.

Evening left her in the den and out into the cold, yet tranquil autumn night. As he trudged through the snow, his dream came to him in tiny, fractured memories.

 _The place where metal birds rest…that's south from here…_ His mind wandered to the city. _Not now, I need to get my eggs safely relocated._

By the bright light of a nearly-full moon, he sped up just a little. After a while, he found the entrance to the tunnels. He traced his steps to the den and hid the eggs in a crevice. At top speed, he bolted back to Echoes and the other four eggs.

"Both of us will carry two eggs." Echoes said when he returned. "Hurry. I've already made my harness."

The two scrambled to get the eggs ready for travel and departed a moment later. Though hurried, they proceeded at a much slower pace than Evening did alone.

"What's this new place like?" Echoes asked, walking beside Evening.

"Just like the other place, but without a berry garden."

"I could always go back when no one's watching the land and take some berries back to plant."

Evening slowly nodded. "In a few days, likely."

They walked without speaking for a while, then Echoes spoke. "Who is the Whisperer? I know she delivers omens to absols, but _who_ is she?"

Evening paused before answering. "She is one of the chaos pokémon of legend. She is the harbinger of death… And the one who alerts absols to avoid needless deaths…"

The two said nothing until they reached the tunnels again.

"Follow me," Evening said. "It's not far now… Let's see if we can speed up a little."

The absol led the weavile to the new den, where the other two eggs laid safe and sound.

"How much of a relief it is to see all of this…" Evening sighed, laying down on his side after the eggs were taken off. "How long should it be until the eggs hatch?"

"Within the week." Echoes laid down beside him, all six eggs between them. "Rest, Evening. You need your sleep. We can make the den more comfortable tomorrow."

She sang to him an ancient weavilian lullaby, while running her longer tail over his lower half, their forelegs intwined. Her sweet voice lulled him to a pleasing, dreamless sleep.


	5. Life in the Mountain

**Chapter Five - Life in the Mountain**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Echoes lightly dozed by the iced-over food storage, curled up with the eggs. She couldn't really sleep, not when the eggs were so close to hatching…

Something wriggled in one of the eggs.

She bolted awake, studying the six matured eggs.

"You can come out now." She stroked the eggs with her tails. "You can do it. Da's not here now, but he will be soon." Heart swelling with excitement and pride, the weavile watched the shiny black eggs. "I'm here. Don't worry. You can come on out now."

The eggs made more sounds of the little critters inside squirming about, ready to break out of their shells and come into the world.

"Come on out, my babies. You can do it."

One egg seemed to have the most movement inside. Minutes passed, that one egg holding the largest cracks.

Evening returned with a tranquill in his mouth. He dropped it as soon as his gaze met the cracked egg. "Is it time?" he asked, a hint of awe in his voice.

Echoes nodded and her mate joined her in watching the eggs hatch. They planned to eat the tranquill when they got hungry during the hatching. With Echoes's paw over Evening's and their tails entwined, they watched in anticipation for the eggs to hatch.

The one egg now had many cracks in one area. It seemed to cave outward for a bit, then the shell gave way, a tiny golden object poking through. Then it stopped moving. Then the sneasel wriggled around in the egg then stopped moving again. It broke a little more of the shell then stopped moving again.

"Why doesn't it just break out?" Evening asked, sniffing the egg.

"You try squirming your way out of an almost-too-small containment with nothing except the sharp thing on your forehead," Echoes said. "It won't be long."

Moments later, the whole shell broke in half and the sneasel inside wriggled.

"Don't help it until it starts mewing." she said. "When they start mewing, that's when you can bring them to me to feed."

Evening nodded as the the little sneasel tore the shell open. It relaxed for a moment, then wriggled a bit more, squirming almost all the way out.

"He's male," Echoes pointed out. "And so tiny…"

"Look at that shiny black fur." Evening gestured to the sneasel. "It's so…sleek."

The sneasel lifted his head, then began to mew. Evening gently picked the sleek black cub by his scruff and set him near Echoes' belly, where he found her teats and began to suckle.

"He's beautiful." Echoes said, her heart swelling.

"What are we going to name him?"

Echoes paused. "In my pack, sneasels are named a month or two after they hatch. You?"

"As soon as they open their eyes."

They paused for a while, thinking.

"Let's wait," Evening said. "We'll learn their personalities a little and name them when we learn them."

The sound of another egg cracking caught their attention. Moments later, another sneasel hatched.

"Not as dark as the other one," Echoes remarked. "But he's a little bigger."

Evening blinked in slight confusion. "What's with the blue feathers?"

"Oh, that." Echoes tilted her head to the side. "Every ten years or so, one of our weaviles and three of our sneasels would be taken from the pack by humans. About a week later, a new weavile and three new sneasels would arrive from a faraway pack. When I was born, the latest swap was brown-furred and blue-feathered. The weavile bred into the pack and every so often, a black-furred and blue-feathered sneasel is born." She looked at the new sneasel, now mewing. As Evening placed him with his brother, Echoes continued. "My father was a blue-feather, so I guess that's where he got them from."

Two more eggs were cracked, one a little farther along than the other. Moments later, the third cub began mewing.

"A little female…" Evening noted. "Look at the white spots. It looks like snow."

The female joined her brothers.

The fourth egg took a while to hatch, a lot longer than the others, but it soon broke out of its shell and began to mew.

"He's huge!" Echoes squeaked. "Look at him!"

Evening looked the sneasel over. "He's gray…"

The cub's dark gray pelt, though very dark, still remained lighter than his brothers', sister's, and even his mother's pelts.

"He may have taken it from you." Echoes noted, watching Evening pick him up.

After the gray one was placed with his brothers and sister, Evening and Echoes watched the last two eggs with anticipation, guessing which one would hatch first.

The minutes stretched to moments…which stretched on…and on…

And they never opened.

"They didn't make it…" Echoes whispered in disbelief.

Evening nuzzled her face. "It's okay, Echoes…" Grief tinged his voice. "It happens. We can't control it…" His eyes remained on the two lifeless eggs. "I'm going to get some berries and plant them… We'll need them for nurturing the sneasels."

The weavile slowly nodded, bringing the two eggs close to her.

"We'll bury them tomorrow." he said. "I'll be back soon."

Echoes nodded once more, allowing Evening to leave. _Why these two? Why them? Why us?_

* * *

Evening buried the two eggs near the garden, planting a sitrus berry tree over their resting place. They were called "Stone With No Life" and "Tree That Passed On". Echoes didn't leave the den often, having to care for their new clutch for so long.

The sneasels grew over the course of the first week. The black cub, ironically, was both the runt and firstborn. The other cubs seemed to understand: he was the eldest, and he goes first, even though he's the smallest. The blue-feathered cub remained quiet most of the time, while his sister was loud. She often woke up Echoes or Evening from sleep, or both. The big, gray cub was also quiet, mostly seeming content with being with his siblings.

On their three-week anniversary, Evening caught the gaze of one of the sneasels.

"Well, hello, my son," he cooed, looking at the large, red-eyed stare of the blue-feathered one. "What big eyes you have."

The sneasel mewed in response.

Echoes slept while Evening and the blue-feathered cub carried on their "conversation", consisting of Evening saying something and the blue-feathered cub mewing in response.

As the day passed, the rest of the sneasels opened their eyes, all of them a pale red.

"Is that normal?" Evening asked Echoes.

She nodded. "They start off with red eyes and when they reach two months old, they will be in their adult color, likely blue, red, amber, or violet."

During their third week, the sneasels were clumsily walking around the den and mimicking their parents' speech. The black one and the female were speaking the best, but the others weren't doing as well. They ate the freshly-picked berries Evening gave them, but they still drank Echoes's milk.

While Evening hunted and gathered berries, Echoes taught the sneasels words.

She picked up a dead watchog Evening had killed for the two of them. "This is a watchog. Watch-og."

"Washog," the sneasels repeated.

Echoes chuckled and pointed to a freshly-killed patrat that wandered too close to the den. "That is a patrat. It evolves into watchog. Pat-rat."

"Patrat!" they squeaked.

"Good sneasels."

The sneasels often explored the den and the little area surrounding it under Echoes's watchful eye. They would splash around in the water for a bit, and often the black one would slip on one of the wet stones. Sometimes they visited the garden and frolicked under the tiny saplings that would fruit every four days.

After a long day of playing, the sneasels would curl up in their own little pile while Echoes would tell them an ancient weavilian tale and lull them to sleep.

At four weeks old, the sneasels were a lot more coordinated, less of their movements involving tripping over themselves or their siblings. Even though they weren't tripping over each other, they still tackled and play-fought each other.

"MAAAAAAAAAAAA! HELP ME, I'M BEING SUFFIXCATED!" the gray cub squeaked with his three clutchmates on top of him.

"DAAAAAAAAAAAA! THE OTHER THREE AREN'T PLAYING FAIR!" the blue-feathered cub whined. "We're playing predator and prey and I keep being choosed as the patrat! I don't want to be the patrat! I want to be the braviary!"

The black one interjected with, "Look, I play the weavile 'cause I says so, our brother plays the beartic 'cause he just fits the role, and our sister plays the braviary 'cause she's good at it! So that leaves you with the patrat."

"But I don't wanna be the patrat!"

Evening looked down at the two of them. "Why don't you play a different pokémon?"

The sneasels looked up at him.

"How about playing as a human's pokémon?" he said. "You can be anything you want."

The sneasels looked at each other, the blue-feathered one seeming hopeful while the black one seemed skeptical. After a long pause, the black one gave in. "Fine, you can be the human's pokémon."

The blue-feathered cub brightened up. "HA! Now I can be the predator!" He tackled his brother and nipped his feather. "I'm going to help my master capture you and bring you on our team!"

"Get oooooofffffff!" the black cub whined. "Daaaaaaa!"

Evening shrugged and smiled. "You let him be a trainer's pokémon. He can do that."

The black cub growled and walked back to the other two sneasels, the blue-feathered one a few steps ahead of him.

After a long day, the family would curl up in the den, the sneasels in the back and Evening and Echoes in the front.


	6. Dwelling in the Mountain

**Chapter Six - Dwelling in the Mountain**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Evening paced around the den while Echoes groomed the gray cub. The other three sneasels waited impatiently for their younger brother to be cleaned so they could go play.

Come on, Echoes," Evening sighed. "He doesn't need to be cleaned because playing will mess up his fur."

Echoes gave the gray cub a few more licks, then let him go. "He at least needs to look good getting there."

"Maaaaaaaa, hurry uuuuuuuuuuuup!" the female whined. "We get to go outside!"

The weavile straightened up and nodded to Evening. "I'm ready now."

The gray cub shook his fur out, messing half of Echoes's work up. He smiled at his parents, then joined his clutchmates.

"Now, we're going outside, that is established." Evening said, the sneasels shaking their tails in excitement. "But we need to let you know of several rules to keep you safe." He looked over at Echoes and when she nodded, he continued. "First rule: no going out of mine or Ma's eyesight or earshot. If we can't see or hear you, we can't help you."

"Second rule," Echoes continued. "If you see a swooping bird of prey, hide under a rock with a small opening and squeeze into the back. The bird won't be able to catch you if you do this."

"And the third rule is don't bury each other in the snow." Evening ordered. "We may lose you and some big pokémon may step on you."

"And lastly, the fourth rule is don't go near the cliff. You could fall and get really hurt." Echoes looked over their little heads.

"You four understand?"

The sneasels either nodded, said, "Yes, Da," or both.

Evening nodded. "Good, now let's go."

The absol took lead in their group with the sneasels in the center and Echoes taking up the rear. After a few minutes, the family reached the outside world. The sneasels squinted in the sunlight, enthralled at the brightness.

"WOAH!" the gray one gasped, breaking the silence. "LOOK AT ALL THE SNOW!"

"THERE'S BUNCHES OF IT!" the female added.

The sneasels hopped around, crunching the snow beneath their paws. Evening had sometimes brought snowballs into the den and let the sneasels play with them. The gray one would try to crunch all of it under his paws, but the black one would steal some and play by himself in the corner. The blue-feathered one and the female would argue with the gray one to stop destroying the snow. Finally, they would play with the snow, sometimes getting it in their parents' fur, until it melted away.

Never before had they seen this much snow before.

All played around, except for the blue-feathered one. He stared up at the bright blue sky, eyes wide in awe.

"What are you looking at, son?" Evening asked him, trying to meet his gaze in the sky.

The blue-feathered cub didn't speak, only stared.

"Son?" the absol gently nudged his son's side with a claw, which was nearly as big as his eyes.

The sneasel looked at his father. "The sky…it's so beautiful…"

Evening looked up at the sky with his son. "You know what? It is."

"What is it like up there?" the little pokémon asked.

The absol paused. "I don't know. Maybe cold." He looked down at his son. "Come on, let's go join your siblings. They look like they want to play Hillside Boulder."

The sneasel looked back up at the sky. "Will the pretty sky still be there?"

"Yes, it will."

The sneasel hesitated a little, but then began running in the direction of his siblings, now rolling down a little portion of the mountain. Evening followed close behind to join them, only supervising.

The sneasels obeyed their parents during the outing and no one got hurt, to the relief of their parents.

Now that the cubs were fully weaned from Echoes's milk, she could go out and relax by herself if she needed it while Evening watched the cubs play in the den. Her leg had healed a little, but her limp remained. She didn't mind it much, though, as she had figured out how to walk and occasionally run with the slightly odd placement.

A few days later, the parents brought the sneasels to the garden. "We're going to play a game." Evening said. "Ma is going to go into the garden and bring out a part of these trees. I'll tell you what it is, what part of the tree it is, and what it can do." Echoes left into the small trees as the absol kept explaining. "When you get older, the game will change."

Echoes came a few moments later with a blue berry with long, curly leaves. She also brought some pink leaves, little white flowers, and long, tangled roots.

"Let me see," Evening said, looking over the plant parts. "It seems that Ma brought back parts of a rawst berry bush." He took the berry and set it in front of the cubs. "You can sniff it and touch it. Don't eat it yet. We'll give it to you later."

The sneasels poked and sniffed the berry as if it were a dead bug, their eyes wide with interest.

"If the berry is firm, that's when it's perfect for eating. These can be used to heal burns by either eating it or chewing it to a pulp and slathering it on the burn." Evening took the leaves. "If your stomach seems to be upset, you can always eat these as a side or to accent your food." He looked over the roots and flowers. "These don't provide any noticeable aid, but it's good to learn what they look like. The root is edible, but if you find a flowering rawst, it's better to wait until it's fruited."

"Your turn to get something." Echoes said, flicking him with her tail. "I'll cut up the berry and share the leaves."

While Evening was out getting the next fruit, each of the sneasels got one bite of the rawst berry.

" _Leck_!" the black one spat. "It's bitter!"

"I like it!" his sister retorted. "It tastes good!"

"I think it's fine," the blue-feathered one said.

The gray one shrugged. "It's okay."

Evening returned with four tiny red berries, bluish leaves, white flowers, and a twisted root.

"This here is from a cheri tree." Echoes said, looking among the items. "The berry is soft and usually that size. They can be used to help with stiffness in the muscles, especially ones caused through electricity."

This continued for an hour or two until Evening and Echoes let their sneasels play in the garden until it was time to return to the den.

On their month-and-three-week anniversary, Echoes brought in five slate tablets and covered them with ice. "Weavile is well-known for having a writing system unlike any other pokémon. Humans are the only creature that we share this trait with. The writing is slightly different in different packs, but it's largely the same." She handed out the tablets and placed hers on the wall, which she sealed to it with ice. "Firstly, we'll go over objects. This means 'rock'." She drew a symbol on the wall with her claws. "Mimic the symbol on your tablets."

The sneasels drew the symbols. While drawn a little crudely, they could still be identified as the symbol.

"Good job," Echoes said, nodding to their attempts. "Let's keep going." She blew ice over the indents to cover their work and did the same with hers to continue their writing. She would sometimes melt the ice to show them if they dug too deep and scratched the stone beneath.

When the sneasels were just a few days past their two-month-anniversary, the family sat in their den and waited for Evening to give an announcement.

"I think it's high time we give all of you names." He looked over at Echoes, who held an ice tablet. "Your mother and I have been considering them for a while and we think these will best suit you." Evening smiled at the gray sneasel. "Your name is Chill Wind Billows Mountain, but like how we have one word we are called rather than using our full names, you will be called Chill. This is for your unshaking personality."

Chill smiled at his parents, shaking his fluffy little tails in excitement.

Echoes showed him the tablet. "This is your name in writing. See that slash to the left of the words? That means it's not just an ordinary word, but a name." The name itself took nineteen characters, aside from the name character.

Evening turned to the female. "You are Flurry of Warm Early Winter, like it is now and like your speckled pelt. In conversation, you will be called Flurry."

Flurry gave a little bounce at the new name, somewhat approving of it.

The absol turned to the blue-feathered sneasel. "Your name is Azure Sky of Great Grandeur for your curiosity and…well…blue feathers. Azure is what you will be addressed as."

Azure widened his eyes, thumping his blue tails on the ground.

Evening then turned to the eldest, the black sneasel. "From now on, you will be called Slick Black Stone by River for your wit and charisma…and the fact that you're as black as the stones you slip on."

At first, Slick brightened as his name was given, but pouted at the final reason for his name.

"I like having a name!" Flurry squeaked. "No more hey-yous forever!"

The other sneasels yipped in agreement, even Slick.

"Now, why don't we go outside to play for a while?" Echoes offered. "You deserve it."

The sneasels promptly agreed and the family went outside and played for the rest of the day.

* * *

Evening found himself in the field with the human metal bird again. He was alone once again, only the metal bird roaring it's great roar and the wind whipping his long fur.

 _Here again…_ The absol dared not to get any closer.

 _ **Good night, Black Evening.**_

Evening whirled around, on high alert. He studied his surroundings. _Where are you?_

 ** _I am behind the thing you fear._**

Evening found a greater absol standing just beyond the metal bird. From a distance, the greater absol looked drastically different with black where there was white and white where there was black.

 _Who are you?_

 _ **I am one of the deities in Weavilian legend. I am the Bringer of Sunlight and the Bringer of Nightmares.**_

The lesser absol tried to make out more of the greater absol's features, but couldn't because of the distance.

 _ **Come here, Black Evening.**_

He stood and started to walk around the metal bird.

 _ **No, Black Evening. Walk under it. Face this fear.**_

 _I'm not afraid of it._

 _ **Then why do you refuse to come closer?**_

 _This will be safer._

 ** _You feel threatened by what you do not understand; this creates fear._**

Evening paused, watching the greater absol from afar.

 ** _Here, I will show you the metal bird and quell your fears._** She raised her wings to the sky. _**But first, you must come over here under the metal bird.**_

The lesser absol hesitated. _What will it do?_

The greater absol said nothing.

Evening looked at the metal bird towering over him, it's great wings always spread. _Will it crush me?_

She gave no reply.

 _Why aren't you speaking?!_ he screamed in his mind, making the greater absol blink just a bit. _Why won't you help me?!_

 _ **I am. Now come.**_

 _But I don't know what it will do… What will it do? What am I to do if it does something?_

The greater absol glared at him. She walked under the metal bird as if it never existed and stood tall over the bowing lesser absol.

 _ **You fear the unknown,**_ she said, her eerie teal eyes locked on his form.

 _I do not know what to expect from something I have never experienced._ He lowered his head to the ground in respect. _Forgive me, Bringer of Nightmares._

She said nothing, only staring at him.

 _Greater Absol?_ Evening asked.

 _ **Coward!**_

Evening flinched.

 _ **Fear of the unknown is natural, but you fear too much.**_ She spread her wings out, smoke-like shadow drifting from her form. **_This fear will be the end of you one day._**

 _Forgive me, Bringer of Nightmares._

 _ **Look at me, Black Evening.**_

The lesser absol met his gaze to the greater absol's. _Yes, Bringer of Nightmares?_

 ** _Face fears. Go to the land you left behind in fleeing from the beartic. Assess it. Return before dawn. Be the mate Echoes Sung at Moon's Rising needs you to be. Be the father your cubs need you to be. You have my blessing, but that will not ensure a successful trip. Do you understand?_**

Evening nodded. _Yes, Bringer of Nightmares._

 _ **Good,**_ she said, folding her wings to her sides. _**Go now, Black Evening. Grow and protect.**_

She launched at him, startling him awake to the frost in his fur.


	7. Return to the Mountain

**Chapter Seven - Return to the Mountain**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

 _Thank the legends I didn't wake her up…_ Evening thought as he watched Echoes's sleeping form. _Good thing we weren't too close, or she would've woken too._

He observed the den, taking notice of the sibling pile the cubs were in, heads leaning on shoulders or bellies or rufflet down and braviary feathers. They looked so peaceful, not even caring about the world's horrors or their own safety. As far as they knew, they were safe.

Evening's gaze lingered on them for a while, then broke away to reason through his dream.

 _Go assess the old territory…_

The absol stepped out of the den, being careful not to wake anyone.

A mutter from Echoes stopped Evening's heart. He looked back at his mate and found her still asleep, merely mumbling in her dreams. Even her legs twitched. He continued on until he assumed he'd be out of earshot, then bolted for the exit of the tunnel system.

The wind proved to be harsher than normal, battering against Evening's fur and freezing over his eyes. The cold seeped into his skin, chilling his bones.

He took several steps somewhere in front of him. He didn't even know where he was going. A few more blind steps into the night shook the absol's senses. He pushed forward, not even knowing where "forward" was, but he pressed on.

Long after the cold had gotten to him, he collapsed in the snow, curling up to conserve what little heat remained. His breath froze long before it even left his maw, his tongue dry and stiff.

 _Go assess the territory… Did she not know it was downright impossible to get there in this weather?!_ He gazed out into the storm, obscuring his vision to several feet in front of him.

In the storm, a faint outline of a figure emerged, black and easy to see. It wasn't until it was closer that Evening could discern what it was.

"Bringer of Nightmares…" he rasped, snow peppering his body. "I'm doing what you wanted. Help me…" He closed his eyes and returned to his curled position.

A moment later, warmth sheltered him from the cold. He twisted his head to look behind him and found the greater absol stretching her wing to shield his smaller frame.

"Thank you…"

The two remained until the storm calmed. As soon as it became easier to see, the greater absol was gone, her only traces of existence in the fallen snow.

Evening looked around to figure out where he was and found the cliff that lined both territories' outskirts. The stone not too far from him was a part of the old territory, he remembered it. The absol studied it on all sides, then noticed the scratches on the side reading "absol", a quadrupedal symbol with the distinct horn on the right side of its head. Even those who couldn't read Weavilian could at least figure out it was that.

Now with his sense of direction, the absol walked to the tunnel system. In a few minutes, he stepped through the opening into the cave. He sniffed the air, smelling for any nearby beartic.

 _Not close here…_

He walked through the tunnel, taking great care in having his claws remain quiet. Remembering the layout, he peeked around every corner and checked behind him frequently. As he reached the den, his steps were light and silent. The scent of beartic overwhelmed his senses.

 _Who is here…?_

The absol peeked in, finding the sleeping forms of three beartic. As he stared, he noticed the hazy sight of two empty nests.

 _Where are they?_

Evening slowly stepped away from the den's entrance. He held his breath, only hearing the snores of the beartic.

Then his back hit a wall of fur. The absol's muscles froze in fear.

"What's this, Grizzle?" a gruff, yet amused voice said behind Evening.

"I don't know, Icecap," Grizzle replied, her voice drenched in sarcasm. "It's too big to be a cubchoo, but too small to be a beartic."

A heavy paw slammed on Evening's back, forcing him into the ground below him. Evening inhaled sharply from the pain.

"It must be that cowardly absol that ran off a while back." Reeking, hot breath warmed the back of his head. "I knew you were a coward, running off after you put our finest beartic out of commission and killed four of us. I'm surprised you actually showed up. Griz, get the others."

Grizzle walked from behind Evening to the den's entrance. She yelled into the den, but Evening didn't hear what she said. His fear drowned out the world. He scrambled beneath Icecap's serrated claws, kicking and yowling, to which the beartic held him tighter. "We don't need you running away, Absol."

"Aw, he's scared." Grizzle cooed, three beartic behind her. "What would our leader order us to do with a meddlesome trespasser?"

"Let's kill him." one of the beartic with Grizzle said. "And hang his body up to show what happens to meddlesome trespassers."

"It's bad luck to kill an absol." Evening cried beneath Icecap. "You'll be cursed by the chaos pokémon of legend if you do! I swear it!"

"Yeah, and I'm a dead bird." Icecap growled.

The absol turned to his left, his horn almost touching the ground, as he tried to glance over at Icecap. "I killed four of your people in one fight. Do you think one extra beartic is going to matter?" As he spoke, the bitter taste of gas burned in his throat.

The beartic looked at each other for a long moment.

"And, for a moment, just think about this." Evening said, waiting a bit for the gas to spread. "This place was completely barren of your kind when I came with my mate. I thought it would be a great place to raise cubs. For a month, no one claimed it, so we settled here. Now, enter the beartic, who are going to take the resources I need to support my mate and future cubs. They would not leave me, so I put them to sleep and made them leave. Then more came on my territory that your kind have not claimed and beat my mate and shattered the egg of one of my daughters. She had a name, you see, Hope For Better Days Ahead. And she had a life she would live if I was left alone with my family." He paused.

The beartic didn't say anything, likely reflecting on his words.

"Do you think I have a right to defend my territory and my family from intruders?" Evening added.

The beartic seemed convinced, but neither allowed him to leave or continued to harass him.

 _If this fails, I can at least burn something…_ he thought. _Something that will make them pay._

One of the beartic with Grizzle sniffed the air. "What's that smell?"

The other beartic sniffed the air.

Evening's pelt chilled. _They're onto me._

"Smells like the heatmor when they're getting ready to blast fire." another beartic said.

"But we drove out the heatmor from this part of the mountain ages ago." Grizzle added. "What could that be?"

Icecap dug his claws into Evening's back. "Were you going to pull something, Absol?" The beartic tossed the absol aside, scraping the smaller one's fresh back wound against the abrasive rock. A long, jagged scar ran down his belly, hidden by his belly fluff.

"What's this?" Icecap inquired, pressing the tip of his first claw on the scar.

Evening scrambled to stand on all fours. He swatted away Icecap's paw and tried to stumble away. Sharp teeth dug into his hind leg, dragging him back to the center of the beartic. Another beartic knocked Evening to his side, exposing his belly again.

"A fragile weak spot." Grizzle noted. "How did you even survive that?" She snapped at his forelimb, making him howl in pain. His throat glowed, ready to blast fire from his jaws.

"He's going to burn us!" another beartic roared.

Icecap delivered a swift blow with the side of his paw to Evening's throat. The absol choked. In his fit, Grizzle released his leg and flipped him on his belly. Icecap slammed his head on the ground, his jaw burning with pain from the unreleased fire and the hard ground beneath.

Icecap roared a slew of curses, pressing Evening's head against the rocky floor. "Don't you ever do that, you hear me?!" He squeezed the absol's skull, shouting even more curses and insults at him. After a few moments of anger, Icecap calmed down, loosening his grip on Evening. "What should we do with him?"

"Let's drown him!" Grizzle stood on all fours, the fur on her legs a dark brown. "Or open up that scar he's got! Or suffocate him! No! Break his neck!"

"Those are too quick, Griz." Icecap growled. "Let's kill him slowly, painfully… Why don't we starve him?" He lowered his head to Evening's ear. "Doesn't that sound like fun?"

The other beartic agreed through nods and rumblings in the throat.

"All right, freeze him and bring him to that empty den."

"You're making a bad decision, Beartic." Evening said. His answer was a slam to the ground.

"Shut it!"

* * *

Evening lay in his frozen prison, ice still melting from his fur and draining into the stream beside him. Three beartic guarded the entrance.

 _Echoes is going to worry… It should be afternoon by now…_

He wished to lay on his right side, but his horn prevented him from getting comfortable.

 _Couldn't it be smoother?_

With the ice mostly melted, Evening could move his limbs. The absol stood and paced around his former den; what he once called home now his prison.

 _The irony._

He thought of the greater absol in his dreams.

 _What was I supposed to learn from this, Bringer of Nightmares?_ he asked no one, feeling a little tired. _It's obvious these beartic won't listen to reason. They just want their territory and revenge._

Evening looked around the den, noticing the mossy nests the beartic never removed. An idea struck his head.

 _I can't make a full blast…but I can at least use this as kindling._

He stooped down to light the edge of the nest on fire, then, once lit, he backed away to the farthest point in the den. He waited a bit, letting the smell of burnt moss waft through the air before he executed his plan.

After a few moments, one of the beartic guards turned to another. "Do you smell something burning?"

The beartic turned, seeing the now blazing fire burn the nest.

"I TOLD YOU WE SHOULD'VE MUZZLED HIM!" Grizzle roared.

Two guards barged into the den, breathing ice on the fire while Evening slipped through the entrance. Grizzle noticed him and tackled him from behind. Evening swung his head back, flinging his horn to defend.

Two ear-shredding screeches echoed through the tunnel.

One from Evening, where the beartic sank her teeth into the side of his face.

The other from Grizzle, where the absol's horn dug straight up her mouth and through her head, killing her nearly instantly.

The weight from the dead beartic pulled Evening down. He struggled to pry her corpse loose from him, but a wedged-in tooth remained steadfast. The shouting down the hall shifted, sounding confused and disorganized.

"HEY, HE'S GETTING AWAY!"

Evening turned to the voice, shuffling to pry loose his horn.

 _Get off…_

Evening finally pried the beartic off his horn. He fumbled to the exit, planting weak mind traps as he left. Once he finally came to the entrance, he planted a stronger mind trap fueled with fear.

 _That should…keep them from…_ His mind blanked for a moment before the right word came to mind. _Pursuit…_

The thought of the trail to his home took up his mind. Each step drained him even emptier than he currently was.

 _Have to get…to Echoes._

The cold rock greeted his feet.

 _Almost there…_

He collapsed on his nest at his den, curling up and quietly whimpering from the pain. After a moment of recovery, he noticed Echoes and the cubs weren't there. He felt glad they didn't have to see him like this. He didn't want them to see him like this. The urge to groom his fur overwhelmed him, but he couldn't do it himself. It hurt too much.

He slipped into sleep just after seeing Echoes return and groom his face.


	8. Last Day in the Mountain

**Chapter Eight - Last Day in the Mountain**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Evening rested on his back while Echoes told an ancient weavilian tale to the sneasels.

"Long ago in the far north, there stretched an eternal night of frozen cold. The Lady of the Moon, Cresselia, seeing the desolate land beneath, decided to make inhabitants for this world of ice. She searched the land to find the inspiration for the inhabitants. After one year of searching, she found a beautiful crystal that created the most beautiful moonbow one had ever seen. At the end of the moonbow, she found a shiny black stone covered in frost. Cresselia kissed the stone and protected it for three days. On the third day, the black stone shifted into the form of a sneasel. Cresselia called this sneasel 'Son of the Moon'.

"The Son of the Moon lived with his mother for years in happiness. One day, Cresselia found another black stone and kissed it and protected it. Three days later, another sneasel was created and Cresselia called her 'Daughter of the Moon'. The children of the moon were to live in happiness together in the land of eternal night and everlasting cold. They had many children, who also had children, who also had children, all of whom flourished in their native lands.

"One day, long after the Son of the Moon and Daughter of the Moon died, the Shadow of the Moon, Darkrai, found the peaceful sneasel pack living in the far north. She approached their chief, Sharp Snow That Blinds Eyes, and asked him to show three sneasels a great sight they had never seen before. The chief agreed and allowed his daughter, Starlight Sheen on Crystal Shadow, their best warrior, Bright Stars in Blackest Sky, and their smartest sneasel, Bitter Cold That Never Ends, to go with Darkrai.

"Darkrai took the three sneasels on a long and wonderful journey to the south. Six months after their departure from the pack, Darkrai woke her companions up and pointed to the horizon. 'Look! You shall see the great sight!'

"The sneasels watched in amazement as the sky turned from black to blue, to purple, to pink, to gold, and the bright red sun arose in the sky. Its warmth rushed into their bodies and changed their forms. They were no longer sneasels, but were weaviles. They thanked Darkrai for showing them this great sight and after watching the sunset, began their trip back to the pack.

"Upon returning, they glowed with the light of the sun and the sneasels were amazed at these beautiful new forms. The Chief asked Darkrai if there was any way to obtain this new form without taking the year-long journey to the south to see the sun. Darkrai then said, 'Weaviles are to be your strongest, your smartest, and your most important. To deny a sneasel of any of these qualities is to deny them the gift of the sun. When a weavile has passed, their claws shall be used to bring the energy of the sun. But to not forget your roots, you must use this at night, when the sun is gone and where you have come from.' Darkrai kissed the foreheads of the three weaviles, granting them immunity from harm until they died of old age.

"When the weaviles died, their claws were used to make some of their young packmates weaviles. This tradition has been passed through the generations. To hold the power of the sun and the warriors, strategists, and rulers of the past requires great discipline and nobility.

"And that is how sneasels were born and how weaviles came to be."

Azure tilted his head to one side. "Is there a story behind the claw that made you a weavile?"

Echoes shrugged. "Not much of one, no. Only a visiting weavile gave me a claw that was meant to be used for his deceased sister. He wished for it to be used rather than lie uselessly. This claw is on my right forepaw. You can see it here."

The weavile flexed her paw to show three black claws and one white on the innermost toe. No one noticed it when the claws were sheathed, as the fur blended in the bright white with the rest of her paw.

The sneasels examined it with Flurry moving the claw ever so slightly. "Does that hurt?"

"No, it doesn't." Echoes looked over at Evening, still dozing with his fluffy belly exposed. One leg stuck up in the air. She noticed the nasty scar that ran down from his belly to near his shoulder, hidden very well with his fluffy fur. _With the whole incident several days ago, I think now is a good a time as any._ She let the cubs play on their own while she laid beside Evening. "Sweet? Can I ask you something?"

The absol drowsily opened his eyes. "Hm? Yes, Plume?"

The weavile pointed to the scar on his belly. "When did you get that?"

Evening's gaze cleared, now alert, but concern furrowed his brow. He twisted his head over to the cubs roughhousing in the corner of the room. "You kids can play just outside of the den, okay? Just don't go too far."

The sneasels yipped their responses and fumbled out of the den, tripping over one another as they left.

"Was that necessary?" Echoes asked.

Evening nodded. "Yes." He rested his head on the ground and sighed. "You ever wonder why I don't talk much about my life within the absol pack?"

"I've guessed a few things." Echoes replied, shrugging.

The absol let out a breath, as if readying to take off a burden. "If you and the cubs were absols, our union would be considered…healthy…fertile…blessed. Absols have smaller clutches than most mammalian pokémon, usually around three to five. And since we prefer to live in places considered dangerous, most don't survive their first day, let alone hatching. Having a large surviving clutch is highly desired. This leads to many clutches leaving one survivor…and that survivor, called 'onlies', even though they have no correlation to their clutchmates other than blood, are considered just as weak and are either killed, abandoned in the wilderness, or left to suffer their stigma throughout their life. I…am an only.

"Onlies destroy families. Some couples split up and mate with other absols if they have an only. Some stop mating altogether, thinking their blood has gone bad, or something. Surviving onlies are not allowed to breed, thinking our blood is weaker than an absol with living clutchmates. There have been onlies that became great, like leaders and skullkeepers and messengers…but there hasn't been an only that took a great position in years… I myself wasn't that high in our hierarchy. Most onlies that survive leave the pack once we reach adulthood…but I was rebuked from my pack." He went silent for a while, staring at the ceiling.

"And?" Echoes prompted.

Evening seemed to realize himself, then continued talking. "There's a rite of passage for absols when they reach adulthood. Every full moon and every new moon, a young absol is able to take this rite and be considered a full-fledged adult. It consists of the absol fasting and hunting for the entire day. The rest of the pack takes the day off resting and talking with their friends. When the sun sets, the absol brings their kill into the camp. The leader, his advisors, and the skullkeeper all assess the young absol's catch. If it is satisfactory, which, most of the time, it is, the whole pack celebrates and feasts for the young absol. The young absol can finally eat and will take over night patrols for the next week.

"Well, it was my turn to take the rite of passage, but an absol younger than me was actually taking the hunt that day. I was not allowed to go out of camp, which was stupid because other absols are allowed to go out for drinking water or stretching their legs or what have you. I didn't enjoy the celebratory feast at all, telling myself _I_ should've been the one my pack was congratulating. The absol that took my place had caught a staraptor all by himself, a great feat for someone his age. I resolved to catch something greater, something that could show I would be great…

"A mamoswine."

"The next morning, I set out for a hunt, which no one found suspicious, as other absols go out for early hunts all the time. I started looking for the mamoswine and found one all alone eating some grass. I assessed the best way to kill it, then began my plan. From there, it's a little fuzzy. I remember stalking it until I got really close to it…then attacking and…I think I did wound it… But then something happened where his tusk sliced this open." He gestured to the scar on his belly. "It wasn't that deep, but it still hurt. My cry attracted my father and he dragged me to safety. I tried to stay awake, but I couldn't…

"I woke up, sort of, near a human healing building. Some of the staff had found me and were trying to get me in the building. I healed a little, but then they sent me to the ranch for further recovery. And that was how I got to the ranch."

Echoes over the course of the story, had laid her head on Evening's belly, wanting the scar to go away forever along with the events he endured. "I wish I could do something to help."

Evening pulled her head closer to his. "You can be here for me."

"I can do that." She relaxed her muscles and drifted into a light doze, hearing her mate's soothing heartbeat.

" _MA_!" Chill barked, scampering into the den. He flopped near his mother and curled up. "Slick and Azure attacked a queen durant and Flurry's helpin' them out!"

"That's nice, Chill," Echoes cooed, nudging him away. "Now run along and go help them kill it."

Chill looked up to his mother's soft gaze. "But…"

Echoes nosed his face. "You can do it. It's one little bug against three little warriors. It could be four if you go help them."

The gray sneasel looked back at the den entrance. "Um…okay…" He walked away, seeming a little nervous. Echoes resumed resting with Evening, neither saying anything, merely enjoying the other's presence.

"I feel we need to leave tonight." Evening stated, breaking the silence. "The harbingers haven't said anything; it's more of a gut feeling, you know?"

"The Whisperer said when the cubs turned three months old, we needed to leave, right? It's three weeks before then."

"I know, but…I have a bad feeling. Those beartic may come any day. It's much more unsettling that they haven't shown up over the past few days." He twisted around so Echoes leaned her head on his side. "Let's leave tonight. Let the cubs rest and once the moon gets a ways into the sky, we'll go."

Echoes stared at him with an uneasy gaze. "Why did you even go back? Do you have a death wish or something?"

Evening sighed. "No, I don't. I was told to go by a harbinger I've never met. She called herself the Bringer of Nightmares."

"That sounds like what Darkrai does." Echoes noted.

"I think the Bringer of Nightmares and Darkrai are one and the same." He gestured as he continued talking. "Anyway, she told me to face my fears by going to the old territory. I wasn't as stealthy as I thought I was and got caught. I almost didn't escape…" He looked away. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have listened to her."

She was about to say something when she noticed some oddly-placed fur. "Hold on, there's something on the back of your head." She leaned over his head, parting his fur with her paws. He winced at the touch. "What's this?"

"Ow. Careful…"

Echoes stood. "I'll send the cubs in and get some berries to help the healing." She left the den and found the sneasels gathered around a few dead durants. All of them looked over at her as she passed.

"Ma! We defeats the enemy!" Slick yipped, pointing to the durants. "The den's be safe now!"

The weavile smiled at her cubs. "Good job, little warriors. Now your father's waiting for you in the den. Go ask him for a song to help you sleep."

"But we's not tired…" Slick whined, slamming a paw on the ground.

"You may not be, but we're going to do something tonight that you need to rest up for. It's a surprise." She smiled. "Run along, now. I need to get some berries."

Flurry and Azure ran to the den, Chill merely walking behind them. Slick gave an inquisitive look at his mother before following his siblings to the den.

Echoes sighed. _He's a puzzle…_ She made her way to the garden and plucked a sitrus berry and three oran berries. A whiff of something caught her nose.

 _What is that…?_

She set the berries down and tried to identify the scent. _It's…an intruder… A beartic! Male…_ She looked up. _Maybe now_ is _a good time to leave._

The weavile went back to the den, finding the cubs curled near their father in any way they could. Azure tucked himself beneath Evening's foreleg, still as a rock. Flurry curled up near Evening's face. Chill and Slick slept by his belly. Evening had nodded off sometime between then and now.

Echoes smiled. _They all look so cute. It's like four little black fuzzballs with one giant white poof._ She set the berries near Evening's head, then gently licked his face to wake him up. "Sweet," she whispered.

The absol lazily opened one eye. "Yes…?"

"I have the berries."

Evening heaved a long sigh. "Good…" He closed his eye and moved his head for his mate to get a better look at the wound.

Echoes parted the fur on his head. "It looks like a tooth…"

"One of the beartic bit me on the way out…"

"But there's bite marks on your jaw!" she whisper-shouted. "How did you manage to get it like this in one bite?!"

"The beartic attacked me from behind. I swung my horn up just as she bit down on my head. Stabbed her right through her mouth."

Echoes's ear feathers slunk back. "That's six sapient pokémon you've killed now…is it-?"

"No." he said bluntly, interrupting her. "It's not." Evening turned to look her in the eyes, his red eyes unwavering. "I swear I'm fine."

The weavile hesitated, then readied to pull the tooth out. "Okay, on 'three'. One-" She yanked out the tooth.

Evening bit back a cry of pain, coming out as a muffled growl. "Argh, you said 'on three'…"

Echoes set the tooth down on the ground. "It's out." She placed a paw on the wound, applying pressure. "You can thank me for that."

Evening let out a slightly amused huff. "Thank you for hurting me when I didn't expect it."

"Try not getting teeth stuck in your skull, then." She smiled back at him. "Maybe we should take a quick trip to the river and get this cleaned out. It doesn't look pretty."

The absol eyed the little sneasels around him. "At least help me by not waking them."

The two gently moved the cubs to let Evening get up and leave. Echoes took the oran berries while Evening took the sitrus berry.

"By the way, I found some traces of beartic on the territory." Echoes stated.

Evening lowered himself by the stream, seeming somewhat expectant. He didn't speak, only nodding in acknowledgement of her report.

"So by tonight, we leave, yes?" Echoes asked while Evening bathed the wound in the cool stream.

He nodded his reply. "Yes. Tonight, we will leave."

 **End of Part One**


	9. Into the Horizon

**Part Two - Beyond the Horizon**

 **Chapter Nine - Into the Horizon**

 **Special Thanks to: Polaraissb (especially with this chapter)**

Echoes studied the sky above her, painted with the setting sun and the pale moon. _Cresselia has blessed us with a bright moon tonight. May she and Darkrai protect us on our journey._

The family had left even earlier than planned. Evening walked in front, Slick at his side. The other cubs made up the middle, chatting about what they thought the surprise was.

Echoes looked back. _Hope, Stone, and Tree will be here forever… Goodbye…and I'm sorry._

The family were now a few minutes away from their den, just reaching the border of the territory.

"Da," Slick said, trying to keep up with his father's larger stride. "Where's we goin'?"

Evening looked down at his son. "We're leaving the mountain."

The small black sneasel looked back at their den. "Thens where'll we stay?"

Evening turned back to the path ahead of them. "Wherever we end up."

The first night of traveling by the stream was uneventful. They found a crevice with a wild rawst berry bush growing near it. They ate the snow for water and had the bitter berries as their morning meal, then settled for the day. They ate a few more berries before leaving in the evening and continued on their way.

On the second night, Evening demonstrated how to hunt to his cubs by catching their next meal. He blended into the snow, rocks, and occasional skinny tree to stalk up on an unsuspecting watchog. The absol didn't kill it, but injured it, making it cry for help and bring in two other watchogs that fed Evening's family well.

During the third night, the family came upon a few figures in the snow. One of them―a steelix, Evening identified―called them over.

"It won't hurt us to help them." Echoes said. "Besides, steelix don't live in this part of the mountain."

They walked over to the steelix and found a human curled on the ground with a flareon in his arms. Beside the human stood a zebstrika, eyeing the human. The flareon turned her head to see the family of wild pokémon.

The steelix lowered his head to Evening, Echoes, and the cubs. The sneasels hid beneath their parents' legs. "Please help us. Our master needs a place to rest and warm up. Is there some sort of house nearby?"

Echoes gestured toward the path they'd been on. "There was a building over the way we came. It doesn't take too long to get there."

The steelix nodded. "Were there any lights on in the windows or smoke in the chimney?"

Echoes looked at Evening with a puzzled look. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

"Was there smoke coming from the top of the house?" he asked again. "Was there anything glowing in the house?"

"Yes," Evening answered. "Yes, there was."

"Thank you," the steelix said, nodding to them. He turned back to the other two pokémon with him. "Blitz, put Whitley on your back. Sparks, try to keep him on Blitz's back. I'll carve a path in the snow to make it easier for Blitz to walk through."

They did as they said and soon began going the way the family came. The flareon turned back to them and said, "Thank you! This means a lot to us!" before she was far enough that the wind stole her voice.

The family continued on, nothing eventful happening for the rest of the day.

It took them five nights to near the base of the mountain. The fourth night was wasted waiting out a snowstorm, but the thought of their tracks being covered brought a bit of peace to Evening. She noticed it in how he didn't look back as often and spoke a little more.

When morning arose on the fifth night, the family found a crevice to take shelter in. Echoes beckoned to talk with Evening in private over a basculin she caught in the stream that led to a short waterfall. The two shared their basculin in silence, then began talking about the journey they had and the journey ahead of them.

"Where are we going, Evening?"

The absol paused. "I…I don't know." He couldn't look her in the eyes. "We're going to the city with the giant metal birds to find a pokémon of silver, but after that, I have no idea."

"What about the Whisperer? Have you asked her about anything?"

"I can't beckon her presence in my dreams or visions. Only skullkeepers, messengers, and leaders can actively beckon the harbingers. She and the rest of them come when they need to tell me something."

Wanting to know the answer to a sudden question, she asked, "Can the cubs interact with the harbingers?" She paused. "Can _I_ interact with the harbingers?"

Evening shrugged. "I've never heard of it, but I know nothing about non-absol mates or cubs interacting with the harbingers."

He grew silent, staring out at the sunrise. Echoes joined him in his reflection. The stream they sat near forked off, one leading downhill to the forest with the other veering towards the cliff, making a thin waterfall to the more lively river below. The mountainside gave way to a blossoming forest, the scent of fresh leaves and rain able to be smelled from this distance. Birds chirped their morning songs and mandibuzz flew high in the sky, surveying the ground for anything killed in the night.

"Where do you think we should go?" Evening asked after a long moment. "Should we stay in the city or leave elsewhere?" He looked her in the eye. "I'd like to know what you think about all this."

The weavile stared at the horizon. She considered for a while, then drew her conclusion. "Why don't we find our old packs?"

Evening said nothing.

Echoes continued. "Or at least my old pack. I remember it being rather well-kept and I was held somewhat in high regard. My mother was a skilled diplomat to the other packs in the area. Humans didn't come by often. There weren't too many dangers. It sounds like your home, cold and somewhat isolated."

The absol slowly nodded. "Maybe. Perhaps this pokémon of silver is supposed to help give directions or something?"

Echoes shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not the Whisperer."

"Who's the Whisperer?" a tiny voice from behind squeaked.

The couple turned back to see their eldest son squinting in the early sunlight. "Da, are we's going to Ma's home?"

Echoes eyed her mate, who seemed to be trying to reason everything out in two heartbeats. "Very likely, Slick, yes." he said only a second after his son's question.

Slick slowly nodded while walking to sit between his parents, his little frame somewhat weary.

"Why are you up, Slick?" Echoes placed a paw on his back and groomed his face. "You should be with your siblings."

The sneasel tried to talk between his mother's licks. "Couldn't sleep…"

Evening smiled ever so gently, knowing the feeling. "Would you like me to sing you a lullaby?"

Slick nodded. Echoes stopped grooming him and relaxed on the cold ground. The sneasel laid at his mother's belly and Evening laid facing the both of them. They settled in closer, almost to the point of sharing breath.

Evening began his song.

 _Mighty warrior, strong and true_  
 _Has fought and stood the whole day through_  
 _He'll come back home and he'll find you_  
 _And in his heart is love._

Echoes knew the song. Rubbing her nose against Evening's, she continued with the next verse.

 _Loving mother, kind and wise_  
 _Has brought us up to reach the skies_  
 _She'll be with us through all our lives_  
 _And in her heart is love._

Evening smiled at hearing her voice, Slick's tails swaying to the slow rhythm. On the last verse, they sang together.

 _Little child, fearless, blind,_  
 _Protect your heart and guard your mind_  
 _Know that my love transcends my life_  
 _So fill your heart with love._

Slick smiled and sang the last verse.

 _My mother and my father, dear,_  
 _I'll listen now with open ears_  
 _I'll be here still for many years_  
 _And in my heart is love._

Echoes watched Evening smile. He didn't continue singing, but he seemed content. She closed her eyes and rested in the cool morning sun.

* * *

Sharp jabs to the side jolted Echoes awake.

Mandibuzz flocked everywhere, screeching, clawing, and pecking. Utter chaos.

Echoes threw up an icy shield in defense, knocking away the five or so mandibuzz attacking her. She glanced over at Evening, the absol warding off any mandibuzz trying to snatch up Slick. The birds crowded around him, waiting for an opening in his movements.

A larger mandibuzz attacked Evening, screeching in a recognizable manner. _They're hungry… They're going to eat my cubs!_

"Protect the cubs!" he barked, licks of fire escaping his maw.

The weavile scrambled to her feet. She shattered her shield on a rock and ran back to the crevice, where four mandibuzz thrashed around to grab the sneasels. Icy powder gathered near her claws as she ran. With all the force of motherly love, she raked her icy claws into the flesh of the bird, leaving a deep gash with ice growing in it. Adrenaline pumping, her clenched fist slammed into the closest thing she could reach, a wing. The ice weighed it down, knocking it off-balance as it cried an indignant squawk. The last two shuffled away, not wanting to interfere with the angry mother. She stood in front of the crevice, flaring her feathers, arching her back, and hissing. Echoes readied a blast of ice for them, hitting them at point-blank range.

"Chill! Azure! Flurry!" the weavile cried, peeking into the crevice. Three little figures huddled in the back of the crevice. "Are you okay?"

They nodded, and Echoes released the breath she held. "Where's Slick?" Flurry asked.

"He's with Da. Stay in the back. That's an order. I'm going back to help Da."

As she turned to leave, her cubs squeaked, "Love you, Ma!" and "Go take the birds down, Ma!"

Their words assured her, swelling the burning feeling in her chest. _I will._

Echoes found Evening fighting with what seemed to be more mandibuzz than before. Some laid on the ground with ice freezing over their wings, bald spots with coarse burns, or a rent body or a twisted neck. Slick remained under his father, spitting ice in the eyes of mandibuzz that tried to snatch him up.

A mandibuzz nipped at Slick, which was promptly blasted with Echoes's ice. The mandibuzz screed, five still airborne attacking Echoes as if on command. She threw up her shield again, the birds clawing and pecking at the thick layer of ice. She edged closer to Evening and Slick, trying to find a good time to encase them within the shield while getting the least amount of scratches on her as possible.

"Ah! Da!" Slick's tiny voice cried. A mandibuzz held his tails in its beak, dragging him from underneath Evening. At his cry, Evening promptly slashed the bird's neck, but his son was exposed. Another mandibuzz grabbed Slick in its talons and took off. Too occupied with taking down other mandibuzz and keeping her shield up, Echoes almost didn't notice.

"DA! MA! HELP ME!" Slick shrieked. He flailed in the mandibuzz's talons and spitting ice shards in random directions, his captor now flying away.

 _Don't **ever** take my child and think you can get away with it!_ Echoes let her shield down. On instinct, she blasted a beam of ice at the mandibuzz who took her cub. She hit its wing. The mandibuzz screed when injured and lost its grip, letting the sneasel fall down the cliffside.

Echoes's heart stopped. She rushed to the cliff edge, peering over the drop and watched in horror as her cub fell into the river below the cliffside and was ripped away by the current.

" _DA-_!"


	10. Dreams of the Horizon

**Chapter Ten - Dreams of the Horizon**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Evening's dreams had grown fangs and claws. Vicious memories of life replayed.

He dreamed of sparring with Freya. The endless amount of times she beat him and burned him. Just enough to leave scars, but not enough that she couldn't pass them off as sparring wounds. The ninetales was just as clever as she was brutal.

Her last whispered words to him were, "I should've smashed your skull on the rocks the instant I could, just like my damn absol mate who abandoned me and took our wretched half-breed cubs with him."

He dreamed of the accident with the mamoswine. The beast's mighty tusks dug into his flesh. He laid in front of his father, using what little strength he had to beg to not be left to die.

His father's last words to him were, "I'll get you somewhere safe." Sincerity was in his voice, making it all the more shocking to find himself with humans.

He dreamed of the beartic holding him in their icy prison. He was alone. His mate and cubs were vulnerable. There was no one to help him.

The ice beneath him shattered and he fell into the oblivion. He landed in the familiar wheat fields once more. Alert and on-edge, Evening surveyed the area. No one was there, but the metal bird stood. It roared while remaining still. It stood with wings outstretched, as if it was already in flight.

 _I don't like it. It's too…unnatural…_

 ** _It's pretty ingenious if you ask me,_** the voice of a harbinger said, echoing through his mind.

Evening jumped in surprise. No one was there, last time he checked. He turned his head back, searching behind him. No one, thankfully.

 ** _No one is asking you,_** another commented, its voice sounding of a thousand voices speaking as one.

The voices sent a chill through Evening's bones. He searched among the wheat, but found no one.

 _ **Oh, shut up, you celluloid amalgamate,**_ the first said again, irritation in her voice. **_Besides, Whisperer of Death and all that told us to get over here and there's her pokémon of interest._**

Evening finally found them. Underneath the metal bird, two harbingers stood: one white with a dark blue face, the other all black. Evening tilted his head at the sight of them. _I know I've heard of them…are these really them?_

The white one turned and nodded. ** _It doesn't help if you just use ambiguous pronouns. Geez, use proper names!_**

Evening paused, slightly confused. _Are you the Thunderer and the Protector?_

 ** _THANK YOU! UGH, WHY DO POKÉMON FEEL THE NEED TO BE AMBIGUOUS?_**

The Protector rolled its eyes. _**Forgive her, for she is stupid.**_

 ** _I'm not stupid!_** the Thunderer hissed. **_I'm approachable! I don't go around and spew words meant to ooh and ahh at! I tell what needs to be told simply and precisely._**

Evening gawked at the two, more notably, the Thunderer. He dared not to say anything, let alone think something. They bickered with each other for several more moments until the lesser absol decided to speak up. _Why are we here?_

 ** _We have someone to give a message to, Thunderer,_** the Protector growled. **_Give him the message._**

The Thunderer huffed. **_Fine_** ** _…but this isn't over!_** She turned to Evening and beckoned him over. **_Come on, you're either going to come over here or we don't tell you the message._**

Evening paused again. He tilted his head to one side.

 ** _ARE YOU DEAF?! GET OVER HERE!_**

The lesser absol looked up at the metal bird, hesitating.

 ** _THAT THING ISN'T EVEN ALIVE! JUST GET YOUR FUZZY HIND END OVER HERE!_**

Evening took a wary step under the metal bird, somewhat expecting it to smash him and the greater absols into the ground. He lowered his head and arched his back just a little.

 ** _That's it, Absol, and you're here!_** The Thunderer smiled, though it was more of an excited smile than a proud one. **_Okay, so there's this really violent storm I've been planning for a while and so it turns out the area you're going in just so happens to need some rain! So I'm gonna dump a lot of it and maybe or maybe not knock over a few trees in the process. It's gonna happen five days from now. Anyway, just giving you a heads up on that._**

Evening blinked. _That's it?_

The Protector responded to the lesser absol. **_Absols do not inhabit that area you are going into. We harbingers usually rely on humans' absols to take care of sending messages like these._**

 ** _Though we are trying to get a resident absol in,_** the Thunderer admitted. _**They'll be a pet to one of the rural humans. It's a perfect place, isn't it? Nice and close to the forest so they can alert the forest pokémon!**_

Evening nodded, not in agreement, but just acknowledging what she said.

 ** _This may disturb the ecosystem, which is why we usually come with her to warn of violent storms,_** the Protector said, its green eyes casting the Thunderer an irate look. **_So she will not raze it._**

The lesser absol slowly nodded. _I'll warn them._ He paused. _But…where's my son?_

 _ **I don't know. I have better things to do than follow you around.**_

The Protector jabbed a paw at her side. **_We watch everything. We see where he is. He is safe, but you cannot go there. It is too far and too difficult, some places even left up to pure luck. If you do not hurry to the city with these metal birds, you will miss the pokémon of silver._**

 _Who is the pokémon of silver?_

 ** _You will know, Absol._** The Protector ruffled its feathers.

 ** _Why'd you even leave early in the first place?_** the Thunderer asked. _**I mean, I'm pretty sure the mandibuzz would've been in a different area if you waited the extra week. Why did you leave early?**_

Evening studied the ground. _Well, I wanted to protect my family from the beartic._

 ** _Then why'd you tick them off? They clearly hate you, so why'd you go and make them even madder?_** She held up his chin with the wrist of her wing to look into his eyes. **_Do you have a death wish or something?_**

 _No, Bringer of Nightmares sent me there._

The Thunderer set her paw down and gave the Protector a look that seemed mixed in surprise and slight irritation.

The Protector shared the same expression. **_Oh…_ She _has taken an interest in you._**

 _What? What's wrong?_

The Protector gave him his answer. **_The Bringer of Nightmares is…odd. She tends to do things for no reason at all, or at the very least, no perceived reason._**

 ** _Yeah, she's weird. Even I think something's not right in her head._** The Thunderer shook her head, giving further emphasis. **_You'll learn a lot from her, though_** ** _…if you manage to survive what she has to teach you, that is._**

Evening stared at his paws, somewhat ashamed.

 ** _We wish you the best of luck,_** the Protector said, lowering its head.

The Thunderer fluffed her feathers. **_We didn't come here just for you, Absol. Spread word on the storm, all right?_**

Evening nodded. _Yes, Thunderer._

 _ **Black Evening,**_ the Protector said, lifting his chin. **_It is time to return to the world._** It launched at Evening, startling him awake.

 _Dammit, I hate it when they do that…_

Echoes stirred awake, as the two embraced in their sleep. "Hmnh, Evening, are you okay?"

Evening sighed. "Yes, Plume. The harbingers woke me up again."

"How long is it until we need to get up?"

The absol opened his eyes, squinting in the low twilight sky. "Just about now."

As Evening moved to shuffle out of Echoes's embrace, the weavile yawned, her jaws wide. "Okay, Sweet, just let me rest for a few more minutes…" She curled up into a fluffy black ball with pinkish-red feathers sticking out and two tails curled around her body.

Evening stretched, casting his gaze to the three sleeping fuzzballs in the back of their crevice. Looking at them reminded him of Slick's loss just the day before.

Wishing to take his guilt out on something, he turned back to Echoes and whispered in her ear, "I'm going out to hunt for a bit. I'll be back just after the sun sets. We'll leave when we see the first stars."

The tip of Echoes's tail flicked around absentmindedly. "M'kay…"

After one last look at his mate and cubs, he stepped out of the crevice, still somewhat squinting in the sunlight. He sniffed the air, catching the scent of a watchog or patrat. As he hunted, he noted the ground changed from snowy to rocky, the trees within a few hours' walk down the mountainside.

A rather pudgy watchog trudged through the snow with six little patrat behind her, a seventh curled up on her back. She couldn't see the predator, the little bit of snow blending him into the landscape. She couldn't hear the predator, as he made his steps light. She couldn't smell the predator, as he was downwind of her.

But the predator left her, not wanting to separate any of her cubs from her.

 _I can't even kill a good catch just because I sympathize with her situation…_ the absol thought, growling.

At the sound of his growl, the watchog herded her cubs into a tuckaway spot.

Evening stalked through the area, alert for prey. Several moments of nothing but dimming light and night bird songs passed until he spotted another watchog. This one stood upright, looking for predators, but happened to have its back turned to Evening.

Keeping low to the ground, he crept up to the unsuspecting prey. His muscles bunched up, ready to catch it. After a second, he launched out, twisting the watchog's neck and breaking it. His heart pounded in exhilaration, almost satisfaction.

 _This is what I'm good at.  
_

The absol sniffed around to see if there were any other watchog and after finding none, dragged his catch back to the crevice.

Evening took his time getting back, even though the snow kept a steady trail for him to follow. The slow pace allowed him to think.

 _There must have been something I could've done to save Slick_ … He paused from his walk, reflecting. _Jumped in the river after him… I almost did that…but Echoes would've lectured me if I did so… Though Slick could still be with the rest of us now… Or simply if I waited until later to leave._

He continued, but thought of something else. _I couldn't have gone later. The beartic were going to attack if I stayed._ He growled. _I shouldn't have disturbed them, even if it was guidance from the harbingers. No,_ harbinger _._ He fluffed his fur up. _The Bringer of Nightmares did this to me._

 _I won't let her play with my life anymore._

With that, Evening brought the watchog to the crevice. He found Echoes urging Flurry to wake up, but Chill and Azure were already up, roughhousing. No one else.

As soon as she noticed him, Echoes sighed in relief. "Evening, could you keep an eye on the boys? I need to go wake Flurry up the hard way." When Evening nodded, she picked her daughter up by the scruff and left the crevice, leaving the two sneasels with their father.

"Maaaaa, I don't wanna get up." Flurry whined, hiding her white-speckled face with her paws.

Evening set down the watchog and laid down. "What are you two doing?"

"Daaaaa!" Azure whined. "Chill keeps _squashing_ me!"

Chill thumped his little brother's head. "I'm not _squashing_ you, karp-brain. I was fighting you fair."

"If Slick were here, I wouldn't be getting squashed!"

Evening's heart skipped a beat, wincing at the harsh words. He remembered what the Protector said, though. _He's still alive and safe._

A shrill squeal of surprise came from outside the crevice. All three turned to the entrance. A moment later, Echoes walked in, tails high. Flurry waddled in beside her, her somewhat fluffy fur soaked and sticking to her skinny frame. Chill and Azure burst into fits of laughter. Even Evening managed a chuckle.

"Ma! That water was _freezing_!" Flurry hissed.

"I told you you'd regret sleeping in." Echoes gave the drenched sneasel a teasing look. Flurry stuck her tongue out and stalked off to the back of the crevice to sulk.

The weavile joined Evening's side, then proceeded to groom his face.

"Flurry, come on." Evening said. "We're eating."

The soaked sneasel meandered her way to the rest. Evening divided up the watchog in two, for the cubs and for himself and Echoes.

"I have news from the harbingers." Evening added. "Slick's safe. He's alive and safe. I don't know where he is or how safe he is, but the harbingers told me he was safe."

No one really knew how to react. The cubs stared at each other for a moment before returning to their food. Echoes buried her face in Evening's shoulder, smiling, but seeming ready to cry.

"I needed to hear that…"

After eating, they cleaned up and left, putting the mountain behind them and going into the forest.


	11. Mysteries of the Horizon

**Chapter Eleven - Mysteries of the Horizon**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Azure crept through the tall grass, alert of his surroundings. He was being hunted. He tried being quiet like Evening had showed him, as quiet as a half-coordinated sneasel cub can be, but to little avail. The predator would soon catch up to him. In the corner of his eye, he caught the predator's figure in the tall grass. It was smelling for him.

The sneasel ran in the opposite direction. The predator detected him. It had no need to be stealthy anymore; its prey was considered caught. The predator lunged out, snarling. It pinned Azure to the ground under its large paw. The sneasel played dead, wishing he didn't get caught.

"And you're dead." Evening said, lifting his paw. "At least you lasted longer than your clutchmates."

Azure stood, shaking his fur out. "Why can't I stay hided?"

"This is why we practice, Azure, so you can stay hidden. If you try to hide in a spot that doesn't make as much noise, a predator hunting you will search elsewhere." The absol lowered his head to his son. "Come on, let's go to the others." He picked the sneasel up by his scruff.

Azure instinctively didn't move as his father carried him to his mother, brother, and sister.

"He lasted pretty long," Echoes remarked.

" _Ugh_ , why does he always win?" Flurry whined.

Evening set Azure down. "Because he's rather smart in where he hides. The first place he hides in is in the shade of a bush with blue flowers. Not a cotton field."

Flurry gave Evening a dour glare.

"Then how come I got found first?" Chill asked, his tails low to the ground.

"You were just unfortunate I tripped over you." Evening said. "If I hadn't, you'd remain uncaught for a while longer."

Chill stared at the dirt at his feet.

"Hey, you'll get better." Echoes encouraged, nosing her biggest son. "Everyone gets better with practice."

Evening nodded. "Come on. Let's keep going." He led the group, Echoes making sure all the cubs were between them.

It was two days since they left the mountain. After that, the same events would happen over and over again. They'd travel for hours, occasionally meeting another pokémon, to which Evening would warn them of the imminent storm, and continue onward across the densely-wooded thicket.

As dawn rose, they settled to rest. Evening took care of the cubs while Echoes fished in a stream. Azure laid around, finding the dirt wall of the den fascinatingly boring. Chill stretched beside his father while Flurry groomed herself.

"Da," Chill yipped. "Tell us a story of the harbingers."

Azure's ear twitched. _Finally, something to shake things up._

Evening yawned, rolling onto his back to stretch. He relaxed, allowing the sneasels to jump up on his belly and snuggle in his soft fur. Flurry and Chill took up the invitation, while Azure just flopped to his other side.

The absol paused, thinking. He inhaled, then exhaled, the sneasels rising and falling on his belly. "Once, there was a young son of an oracle. This pokémon and his father were shunned by other pokémon. One day, the oracle left, abandoning the son and leaving him alone in the world. Shortly after he left, the son had a message given to him by the Whisperer of Death, saying good times were ahead, only to be shattered by an unnecessary death.

"You see, one day, the young pokémon met eyes with the chieftain's daughter, a beautiful young pokémon with the grace of a swanna. The two met later in the day, exchanging their woes of daily life and learning to trust one another. The female's parents, a revered warrior and his chieftain mate, both were gone, so instead, her guardian, a pokémon of nobility, reared her to become chieftain one day. However, the oracle's son and the chieftain's daughter met in secret over and over, slowly falling in love.

"After months of meeting in secret, the oracle's son asked the chieftain's daughter to become his mate, to which she agreed. She did not reveal this to the public, but soon it became clear she'd taken on a mate. When the guardian found out, she demanded to know who the father of the chieftain's daughter's cubs was. She was silent, but the guardian did learn the identity of the lover. The guardian confronted the oracle's son, cursing him for mingling his bad blood with nobility. Then she announced she would kill him.

"The young pokémon fought back, defending himself from certain death. He never truly gained an upper claw in the fight. After a long battle, the guardian finally got the young pokémon at her mercy. Desperate, the young pokémon struck upward, right to her throat. He heaved her weight off him and backed away, horrified at his actions. At first, he felt horrible that he'd done such a thing, but as he watched her bleed out, as he heard her curse him, his heart hardened, and he left her there to die.

"The land threw into uproar as to who had killed the chieftain's daughter's guardian. Few knew she was even expecting, let alone who her lover was. The oracle's son and the chieftain's daughter resolved to run away together, which they did. No one heard from them ever again."

The abrupt ending made Azure want to hear more. It didn't end like most of the stories Evening or Echoes told them, sour and with no real resolution.

Apparently Flurry thought the same. "That's it?" she prompted, tilting her head to one side.

Evening shook his head. "No, but that's the bulk of the story. The couple lived as happy lives as they could…neither mostly happy nor mostly bad."

It was then that Azure noticed his mother standing at the entrance, carrying a fish in her jaws. Azure didn't know how long she'd been there, but judging from her expression, frazzled and nervous, she'd been there long enough. The weavile set the fish down on the smooth slate stone in the den.

"I've got a basculin for everyone," Echoes announced. "Be glad it's not a magikarp or a barboach."

Evening wrinkled his nose at the other fish listed. "Ugh, yes."

"What's a barboach?" Chill asked.

"It's an…edible fish, but it's so skinny, it's not worth the catch." The absol shooed his cubs off his belly and flipped over. "And magikarp takes forever to descale, whereas basculin doesn't have as many scales to remove before eating it." Evening divided up the basculin among his family, then roasted it with his fire. "Basculin tastes remarkable when it's set on fire, though."

As Azure ate his share of the basculin, he noticed the wary look his mother gave his father. Evening noticed Echoes, sat up from his meal, and tilted his head inquisitively. Echoes mouthed something to Evening Azure couldn't quite make out other than the first word, "What". Evening nodded, mouthing, "I'll explain later". The two returned to their meal, Echoes seeming on-edge.

After everyone finished eating and cleaned up the bones, Evening and Echoes took turns grooming the cubs before telling them to settle down for the night.

"We'll be outside talking," Echoes said, casting a nervous glance at Evening.

"Come out only if you need it." Evening added. "Unless someone's bleeding, has a bone broken, or is in agonizing pain, please don't interrupt us."

Azure settled in amongst his clutchmates, watching his mother and father exit the shallow den in the dappled pre-dawn light. For ages, he tried to relax his mind, but the air of tension between his parents kept him awake.

 _Why was Ma so worried about Da? Was it the story he told to us that got her mad?_ He lifted his head to see the early rays of sunlight shimmer down through the cave. Evening and Echoes hadn't returned. He checked his brother and sister to see if they were asleep, and after confirming it, slowly stood and quietly left the den.

He found the two curled up together, Evening resting his head on Echoes's shoulders and their tails entwined. An odd scent filled the air, one Azure hadn't smelled before. It surrounded the area, and it seemed as if they'd covered the place in the odd scent. Azure shook the thought away and returned to his more important topic.

"Ma?" Azure whispered. "Da? Can I ask you something?"

Echoes lazily lifted her eyelids. "Azure, what are you doing up?"

"Um…" the sneasel hummed, "I wanted to ask you something and I didn't think it was the best time…"

Echoes inhaled deeply, twisting and stretching out her limbs and spine, waking Evening up in the process. Evening moved off Echoes and resettled himself, trying to go back to sleep. "What is it, sweetie?" The weavile nosed for him to snuggle up beside her.

"You've acting weird since Da told me and my brother and sister the story. Why were you acting weird?"

Echoes paused, eying the white furball beside her. "It's…very sensitive…"

"Was it something Da did that made you mad?" Azure asked. "Was him telling us the story that got you mad?"

The weavile stared the sneasel in the eyes. "Azure, I'm not mad at your father. I'm anything but that. I'm more…worried." Her gaze softened.

"Why are you worried?"

She paused again, her feathers pressed against her head. "I'm not sure now is the best time to let you know of certain things. You are a child. Children shouldn't worry themselves over things like these." She touched his nose with hers. "When you are a year old, I will tell you why it had me anxious."

"How long will that take?"

Echoes smiled, stroking her son's pelt with a black claw. "You'll be a year before you know it." She groomed his pelt a little, easing him. "Now go back to the den and get some sleep. Da and I will be back shortly."

Azure stood, nodding while yawning. As much as he hated admitting it, he did feel rather drowsy. He made his way back to the den, then settled in for a dreamless sleep.


	12. Storm in the Horizon

**Chapter Twelve - Storm in the Horizon**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

"Why'd we have to get the worst den we've ever had when the most violent rainstorm _had_ to hit?" Flurry asked, lifting her mud-covered paws out of the ground.

Evening shrugged. "That's just the way things go sometimes."

The shallow den didn't do much when it came to protecting the family inside. Evening and Echoes barely fit in it alone. Add in the three cubs and there was little room to move about.

"Couldn't we have picked a _bigger_ den?" Flurry asked, stretching her limbs out and accidentally jabbing Chill's face.

Echoes looked back at her daughter. "It was either this or the downpour."

Thunder rumbled, making the cubs jump in surprise. Flurry recomposed herself and gazed out again. "To be honest, I'd rather be outside. It's getting warmer and the thunder isn't that bad. The lightning hasn't struck anything yet."

Echoes observed the thunderstorm. "Just because it hasn't struck something bad until now doesn't mean it never will."

Lightning flashed, followed by the growl of thunder. The cubs stared wide-eyed at the ensuing rage of the Thunderer.

Evening smirked, amused. "You still want to go outside?"

Flurry nodded. "FINE! I will!" She made her leave with dignity―as much dignity as one can have with squelching mud and a dampened pelt.

"Don't go too far!" Echoes hissed.

Flurry planted herself next to a tree, where the downpour was broken up and only large rocks sat in a pile. She rubbed her muddied paws in the dripping rainwater, cleaning them.

Azure looked up at his father. "Why is it getting warmer?"

"Well, for one, we're off the mountain. The higher one is, the colder it gets." Evening explained, adjusting himself on the dirty ground. "And the other reason is because the seasons are changing. It's now spring."

"What's spring?" Chill asked, looking up at his mother.

"Spring is when rain falls from the sky instead of snow." Echoes answered. "The trees start regrowing their leaves after not having any in winter. Birds tend to have their eggs at this time. Flowers begin blooming. The land seems to wake up from sleeping in winter, so to say."

The cubs looked out at the rainstorm. "So what comes after spring?" Azure asked.

"Summer," Echoes answered. "That's when it gets really hot. The sun's out for longer than in any other season, making them long days of playing under it. Thunderstorms of this magnitude usually hit during summer, but sometimes a violent one will sneak its way into the other seasons. The leaves on trees will be at their biggest and have a healthy shade of green."

"And what comes after that?" Azure prodded.

"Autumn, when the land prepares for sleep." Evening added. "The leaves turn to a different color and fall off the trees. It gets cooler and the birds fly south to warmer lands."

"And after that?"

"Winter: a cold, desolate time where food is scarce." Evening stared out at the rain. "I'm going to wait out the storm by sleeping… I need it."

Echoes nodded in his direction. "Sleep, Evening."

The absol pulled his feet in and nodded off within moments of closing his eyes. His pelt would be filthy after the storm, but at least they could bathe in the river nearby…assuming it was clean enough to wash in and tame enough to not worry about being dragged away.

Echoes sank into deep thought during the thunderstorm, barely noticing when the rain lightened up and altogether stopped.

The family washed the mud off in the stream, Evening taking the most time out of all of them. Mud caked his legs and lower half, making it harder to clean all of it out of his white fur. He scowled as he groomed his more difficult-to-reach areas, twisting in odd directions.

Not only were the family out cleaning themselves, but other pokémon gathered near the stream to wash the mud off themselves. Echoes recognized the species of of a few―mostly oshawotts with their mothers, pinkish-brown deerlings prancing about, and a zebstrika with a blitzle here and there. There were even a few audinos tending to injuries sustained in the storm.

"How long has it been since the storm started?" Chill asked.

Echoes thought it over. "Probably a day and a half."

Flurry groomed her mostly-clean fur, stretching to get her flanks. "So when are we eating?"

The weavile realized how hungry her cubs should be. "I'll find something to eat. Evening, can you look after the cubs?"

Evening hummed his affirmation, not moving from his cool spot in the stream.

"All right, I'll be back." Echoes headed toward the forest, disturbed from the heavy rain and lightning.

"Excuse me," a dewott said, approaching Echoes. "You're the absol's mate, yes?"

The weavile nodded. "Yes."

"You need food for your family, yes?" the dewott went on.

"Yes, we do need food."

"Come with me." The dewott nodded away, turning and leaving.

Hesitantly, Echoes followed.

"We pokémon of the forest greatly respect absols. We have a garden shared among the forest that we only allow passerby absols and their families to eat from." the dewott explained. She parted some leaves, opening up an entrance to a clearing full of berry trees, bushes, and vines. "This garden was tilled with the hooves of zebstrikas, nurtured with the powers of sawsbucks, and watered by the powers of dewotts and samurotts. Please, take any you'd like."

Echoes eyed the massive garden, wondering what she could even find in here. "How many types of berry do you have here?"

"Last time we checked, which was a week ago, we added a twenty-seventh berry. Oshawotts and dewotts are given the task of taking what berries we can find from humans who pass by." The dewott chuckled. "We tend to get repeats, but on occasion, someone snags a rarer one."

The weavile looked around at all the healthy fruit. She paused at one, eyeing it. "Is that a jaboca plant?" She pointed to a purplish-pink-leaved plant with yellow berries hanging from it in clutches.

The dewott slowly nodded. "I believe so. You can try it to see if it is a jaboca berry."

Echoes nipped a berry off the bush, then crunched into the soft skin. The bitter burst of flavor overwhelmed her mouth. "Oh, sweet Cresselia, this is a jaboca berry!"

The dewott smiled. "Go ahead. Take it."

Echoes did. "So, what's your name? You haven't told it to me yet."

"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm Quam!" She nodded in a foreign, yet polite gesture. "And you are?"

"Echoes," the weavile said, nodding back. "Are there any personal recommendations?"

Quam looked over the berry plants. "I managed to find an enigma berry when I was still an oshawott. It was planted and it's growing around here somewhere. It's a black and white berry on a pale lavender tree."

Echoes eyed the plants for the one Quam described. She wandered a few plants away from the jaboca plant and found the enigma tree. She plucked the berry off. "What does it taste like?"

"Think of the spiciest thing you've ever eaten and imagine it even moreso," the dewott described. "Then you have the enigma berry."

"Evening, that's my mate, doesn't have a preference for certain taste, but I think he'd like this." She picked the berry off the tree and added it with the jaboca berry. "Do you have anything really sweet?"

Quam tilted her head. "The sweetest thing we have are kasib berries. It's the vine on that tree over there with the purple berries."

All together, Echoes picked five berries, one for each of her family members. She and Quam returned to the stream, finding Evening talking with a sawsbuck with a large set of antlers and the sneasels playing with the other young pokémon.

"Thank you, Evening," the sawsbuck said. "We can arrange for your den to be somewhere suitable for your entire family."

Evening shook his head. "Oh, that won't be necessary. We're passing through. Though the harbingers said you'll have a permanent absol to warn you of disasters in the near-future."

"At least take the time to feed yourselves. Your mate here seems to have returned from our garden."

Echoes sat down next to Evening, giving him the enigma berry and popping a jaboca berry into her mouth.

"Thank you, Noble."

The sawsbuck nodded. "You are welcome to stay for as long as you'd like."

After the cubs ate and washed, the family left the pokémon of the forest.

"Da, how long will we keep walking?" Azure asked, keeping up with his father rather well.

Evening studied the horizon. "A day or two, depending on how much we walk."

"Where are we going, Da?" the blue-feathered sneasel asked again.

Evening smiled. "To the metal birds."


	13. City in the Horizon

**Chapter Thirteen - City in the Horizon  
**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Evening laid on a rocky hilltop, morning frost covering the ground. He relaxed in the warmth of the sun, lazily thinking about nothing.

 ** _Relaxing dream for once, I assume?_** a voice asked.

The absol sat upright, finding a pure black harbinger standing at the base of the rock pile. His eyes bore a warm red and his face a friendly smile.

 _You are?_

 _ **The Idealist.**_ The harbinger nodded his head. **_Brother of my sister, the Unblind._**

Evening paused. _Your names…they―_

 _ **Lack the unity with the other harbingers?**_ the Idealist said, finishing the absol's sentence. **_Yes, and there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that. When the twin brothers caused me and my sister to separate from one, the twins named me and my sister. I find it hard to adapt to a new name, so I keep the one the younger twin gave me._**

The absol slowly nodded. _I see._

The Idealist looked at the rocks Evening slept on. **_May I join you in sunbathing?_**

 _Sure._ Evening laid down, enjoying the sun. _Do you know much about the pokémon of silver? My family and I should be at the city of metal birds by the afternoon._

 _ **The pokémon of silver is one you will not expect.**_ The Idealist laid on his back, stretching out his wings to absorb as much sunlight as he could. **_You will know who it is when you meet._**

 _But when I meet them, what will I say to them? "Hello, I'm an absol and this is my weavile mate. We're trying to get back to her home and need directions. Do you know where a bunch of weaviles meet?"_ His voice was drenched with sarcasm. _Not the best way to introduce oneself._

The Idealist chuckled. **_The pokémon of silver will make things a lot easier for you._**

Evening sighed, wishing to know more. He didn't say anything more, but listened to the morning birds sing and the Idealist's relaxed breathing. His eyes caught a bright ray of sunlight, stirring him from his doze on the rocks.

He opened his eyes to the low dawn sunlight, finding Echoes at his side and the cubs just a ways away in the shelter of the roots of a rather large tree. He stood, stretched, and welcomed the morning.

* * *

"Da, what is this?" Azure asked.

Evening didn't really know, but didn't respond to his son. The building they approached had several metal birds around it, probably about thirty of them. One circled above their heads while another whizzed by an asphalt road, followed by its ascent into the air.

"I think the humans use the metal birds to get to faraway places faster." Echoes said. "I remember being in the belly of one before I was brought to the moor."

"I don't remember anything about a metal bird." Evening added. "I was knocked out while I was being transferred, for the most part. I woke up a few times and was promptly sedated."

Echoes eyed him. "You were a nervous wreck when you arrived. The older pokémon said sedation was used for those who were overly aggressive or too scared to move."

"You expect me to be calm after I awake in an unfamiliar place far away from the absol pack?" A hint of irritation edged his voice.

Echoes's shocked and embarrassed expression made him reconsider his words.

"I'm sorry…" Evening lowered his head. "That was out-of-line."

The weavile met his eyes, slowly breathing. "You're forgiven."

Evening licked a feathery ear, adding to his apology. He turned back to the sneasels behind him. "Remember, we're looking for a pokémon of silver. It could mean the pokémon has silver fur, scales, feathers, or has silver plating. Keep your eyes open and point out any pokémon that would fit the description."

The family made their way around the stretch of road the metal birds took off and landed on to be on the safe side. It took longer than just walking across the asphalt, but no one needed to get trampled by the birds, not when they'd already experienced loss a few times over.

"Echoes, can you read the written language of the humans?" Evening asked.

The weavile shook her head. "No, but I remember some important icons that could be useful." She pointed to a sphere-shaped icon with a smaller circle in the center. The top and bottom of the object were two different colors. "That icon means it has something to do with pokémon."

Evening slowly nodded. "Why don't we search for something with that icon so we can find a large group of pokémon?"

Echoes affirmed his idea with a nod. "Sounds like a plan."

They made their way to the massive building the metal birds crowded around, searching for the pokémon symbol and the pokémon of silver. Humans crowded the area, most with pokémon, some without. Smaller pokémon perched on their human's shoulders, eyeing everything and everyone, even the family of wild pokémon among them. Medium-sized pokémon walked beside their humans, eying the area for potential threats. Large pokémon followed their humans, every step making the ground shake just a little, warning small pokémon to be wary of getting stepped on.

So many pokémon…one of them the pokémon of silver.

So many humans… Would they find a family of pokémon odd?

"Stick close, sneasels," Evening warned, gesturing with his tail. "We don't want anyone trampled or lost in the crowd."

"Oh! We can do something that I did in the snowy fields when I was your age!" Echoes smiled and nosed the cubs closer. "My pack had three camps for all the sneasels and weaviles to live in. However, sometimes we needed to move to another camp for one reason or another and the weather would be really bad. Mostly weaviles and grown-up sneasels could traverse the land with no problem, but the young ones usually had a harder time. What'd we do to keep ourselves close together was form a line. Each sneasel would gently bite on the sneasel's tail in front of them, keeping them all close together. I remember doing this with my clutchmates and not a single one was lost."

Evening nodded. "Good idea." He lowered his head to the cubs. "Azure, you take the front. Flurry goes after you and Chill after her. Ah, no objections." He gave Flurry a hard look as she opened her mouth to protest.

The cubs obeyed, the white-speckled one begrudgingly.

They weaved through the bustling humans and pokémon, searching for a silver pokémon.

"DA!" Flurry shouted, somewhat muffled by her brother's tail in her mouth. "That pokémon's silver!" She to a skarmory standing next to a well-dressed human. "Go talk to him!"

Evening paused, wishing to not make an embarrassment of himself. But, not wanting to disappoint his family, approached the skarmory with as much confidence as he could muster.

"Excuse me," the absol said, catching the skarmory's attention. "I'm looking for someone. Someone silver. I've been needing guidance and the harbingers have told me that a pokémon of silver will help me. May we talk?"

The skarmory scoffed. "Harbingers? Pokémon of silver? You're crazy, Absol. I have an airport to run with my human and I don't need to be wasting time with crazy star-reading pokémon. And you haven't cleaned in ages! You smell like a dead rattata."

Evening nodded, his skin burning beneath his pelt. "I'm sorry, excuse me, then." He backed away, then walked to his family standing a bit away from them.

"Yeah, get off my airport, you crazy absol!"

Evening groaned as he met up with his mate and cubs. "Well, he wasn't the pokémon of silver."

"Sorry," Echoes said, licking his cheek. "Fortunately, I asked a human's pokémon where a whole bunch of pokémon can be seen at once…and I didn't get a straight answer. She said this…airport, she called it…is teeming with pokémon everywhere. But, she said there's a place for big pokémon or families to get picked up from if they wanted to be outside their ball for the flight. It's over there." She pointed to a place with large boxes and the circular icon they were looking for. "Maybe the pokémon of silver is there?"

Evening shrugged. "It's worth a shot, but keep an eye out for other silver pokémon." He eyed the crowd, finding a few other pokémon of silver coloring, including an odd pale eevee snuggled in his human's hood, a cinccino crashed out in her human's backpack, and a steelix waiting alongside his human, who was talking to someone else. There was also a silver ninetales with a flowy mane and tails, but Evening didn't want to speak with her.

They reached the area with the big pokémon, searching for their pokémon of interest. Many large pokémon sat in large crates with cushions on the bottom. Occasionally, a family of medium-sized pokémon and their tiny children nodded off in their crate, waiting.

"Hey! You! Absol with the weavile and the adorable little sneasels!" a pokémon in a nearby crate called.

Evening turned back to the pokémon, a female aggron with silver plating instead of the usual dingy gray. "Is she talking to us?" he whispered.

"Did she just call us adorable?" Chill asked with a wrinkled nose, not quite as quiet as his father.

The aggron chuckled. "Cute little things, but have you seen a handsome garchomp around here somewhere? He's got a lovely shade of blue for his skin and stunning amber eyes. Have you seen him?"

Evening stared at Echoes for help, not really knowing what to say. Echoes answered for him. "No, sorry."

"Aw, we weren't placed close on the plane like my trainer told those stupid airline people to." The aggron eyed the cushion she sat on. "I had to sit there for five hours without my sweet Caspian to talk to! It's also been another hour since I got off the plane and I swear passport control takes way too long! I want my trainer to come back this instant and pick me and my Caspian up so we can get going! I'm dying to stretch my legs out!"

Neither weavile nor absol knew what to say to that.

Echoes leaned into Evening's ear. "Do you think she's the pokémon of silver?"

Evening shrugged. "I don't know."

"What are you talking about?" the aggron asked, poking her nose through her crate. "By the way, what's a family of wild pokémon doing this close to the city? Don't your kinds usually live in mountains?"

Evening nodded. "Yes, but we are…special cases."

"Ah, there's always a few of those." The aggron settled down on her cushion, trying to stretch out her short legs. "I'm Argenta, by the way. I'm going to be staying here in this city for the Pokémon World Tournament. I'm so excited! My trainer's been working really hard for this! I'm so proud of her!"

Echoes looked to Evening, her face somewhat excited. "I think she is the pokémon of silver."

"Oh, but I'm not going to be fighting. My trainer gave me this shiny silver plating the other week as a celebration for getting into the tournament! She gave all of us something special, like a nice collar, or a fun training toy, ooh! And one even got a whet stone! He's an aegislash, you'd really like him."

Evening slowly nodded. "I see…Argenta, yes?"

"Yep."

"It was good talking to you. I hope your human will come for you shortly."

"She will soon. It's been a long while, so they surely must be done." Argenta looked down at the pokémon. "If you're looking for a place to crash tonight, I find a lot of traveling wild pokémon in parks. Humans aren't allowed to capture pokémon in parks unless specifically said so. Just ask a human's pokémon who can read and you'll be fine. I've been here before on vacation, so I know there's a park that way, toward the mountain to the south. If you keep following it, you'll find yourself at a park before sunset and the pokémon I met there last time looked pretty satisfied."

"Thank you," Evening said, nodding.

"Oh! There's my trainer!" Argenta pointed to a female human carrying several boxes with sticks and wheels among a group of a few other humans. "Hi! I'm right here! Did you miss me?!"

Echoes leaned into Evening's ear. "Let's leave her to her human. If she's the pokémon of silver, we should meet her again."

"Agreed," Evening muttered. He spoke up with a louder voice before the human came to Argenta. "We'll leave you to your human, then."

"Thanks for the talk!" Argenta said, smiling. She turned back to her human, beaming. "I've missed you so much! Did you know they actually separated me from Caspian?! I want you to file a complaint!"

The family turned, walking away.

"Are we going to that park she told us about?" Azure asked.

Evening nodded. "It seems like a decent place to live."

"Do you think she's the pokémon of silver?" the blue-feathered sneasel asked again.

"Likely," Evening said, nodding. "Very likely."

Echoes looked back at the aggron, now rubbing noses with a thin garchomp. "It all depends on if we meet again."


	14. Friend from the Horizon

**Chapter Fourteen - Friend from the Horizon**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Echoes took her fifth serving of rawst berries from the ground plant, snacking on the fruit.

"You already ate that rattata, Echoes," Evening said, furrowing his brow. "Are you that hungry?"

The weavile nodded.

Evening sighed. "I'll make sure to get something bigger than normal… Perhaps a raticate?"

She nodded again.

"All right. I'll see what the cubs are up to… Hopefully they won't be doing anything too stupid…"

"Sweet, cubs are cubs. They won't be that way forever." Echoes smiled, rolling around on the soft moss she laid on.

The absol nodded. "Yes, but I'd prefer it if I die knowing they've lived satisfying lives up to that point." He nosed her face, then left. "I'll be back in a bit."

Echoes hummed her response, then resumed her resting. She reflected on the day, then realized she felt a bit more relaxed than usual. Thinking on it more, she found it had to do with her somewhat uplifted spirits.

The park, as Argenta called it, was a large field with several burrows dug out for pokémon to reside. Echoes counted at least a dozen, but not all of them were filled. In one burrow, a jolteon father and glaceon mother lived with their seven eevee cubs, three of them older with the other four about the sneasels' age. Their cubs got along rather well, even though Echoes couldn't remember half of the eevees' names. She remembered the mother and father's names, Radiance and Flash, but she couldn't remember which female was named Dazzle or which male was named Grand or whichever child was called Ideal. At least Elusive was easy to point out―he had a slightly rarer dark brown to him.

In another burrow, two sableye hid away, usually coming back with some piece of stolen human junk. One of the sableyes brought back a weird glass object proclaiming it was a "bottol". Whatever it was, it didn't look that impressive.

In the garden section of the park, a petilil colony resided, led by several lilligant. They were friendly with both pokémon and humans, even if they weren't treated as nicely in return. The lilligant knew a bit about healing, so they assisted whenever they could.

The park was often frequented by human families, trainers, and pokémon who were with them. Tables scattered the park, most taken up by afternoon and crowded by nightfall. However, some trainers came early to train while no one was there. They weren't allowed to catch wild pokémon while in the park or close around it, so its residents didn't have to worry too much about being taken away.

Echoes snapped back into reality as she noticed Evening playing with the sneasels. The cubs poked him with their two long claws, then scurried off for cover, squealing with childish delight. He chased them down, nipping their scruffs. The cub he caught, this time Chill, giggled as Evening plopped him on the ground and gently wrestled with him.

 _He plays a little rough,_ Echoes admitted to herself. _But at least the sneasels like it._

"Evening!"

The absol straightened up, swiveling his head around, trying to find who called him.

Echoes blinked in confusion. _I didn't call him… So who did?_

Evening apparently found who called him. They stood up on a little hill, waving them down. It was an excadrill, larger and burlier than most.

"Evening! Is that you?!" the excadrill called.

 _That voice…_ Echoes thought. _I swear that's not-_

"Crusher!" Evening cried, briskly walking up the hill with the three sneasels behind him. "Yes! I'm Evening!"

The excadrill let out a hearty laugh as he caught the absol up in a firm squeeze. "I MISSED YOU SO MUCH! Are these your kids?! They look kind of like you! Where's Echoes?! Is she okay?!"

"She is! She's right over there in that burrow!" Evening gestured to the burrow she sat in, cuing her entrance. Echoes made her way on the top of the hill, finding just behind Crusher five other pokémon and two humans at the table.

Crusher lit up, hugging the weavile. "You're okay! Oh, that's such a relief! I was worried sick when Evening dragged you into the rockslide! I thought you both died. Then when we cleared the rocks, all we found was a pool of dried blood with some more trailing inside. We assumed you survived the rockslide, but died later on." He eyed the cubs, then their father. "Siara told me Echoes was expecting your eggs… She didn't tell anyone else. She only told who she thought would be important, which included me and Mallow. Just the two of us."

Echoes relaxed, remembering the whimsicott friend she had back in reserve. Now that she thought about it, Mallow wasn't much of a friend as she was just someone who she hung out with often. Echoes didn't open up as much to her as she did to Evening at that time, but if Siara felt it necessary to tell the whimsicott of the weavile's state, so be it.

"So why are you here?" Evening asked, prodding the excadrill's side. "How'd you end up all the way over here?"

"Oh! I'm actually a trainer's pokémon now." Crusher gestured back to the two humans and the five other pokémon behind them. "The one with the dirty blond hair is my trainer; the other one is like a mentor to him or something. These other pokémon are my team."

Echoes studied Crusher's teammates. Three stood behind him, those being a tyrantrum, a mawile with a jeweled choker, and a three-legged lycanroc. Two others dozed near the table with the humans, those being a female hippowdon and a golem that didn't look quite right.

"Evening, Echoes, these are my teammates; Big Red, Pix, and Tripod. Those other two sleeping are Mamma and Jawbreaker. Team, these are my friends from back in the reserve and their kids."

Pix smiled, nodding. "It's good to see our newest rookie's old friends." In the way she carried herself with a confident step and talked in the rather blunt manner she did, Echoes assumed she was either the oldest member of the team or the team ace or something.

The tyrantrum lowered his head to the cubs. "These three are cute."

Chill, Flurry, and Azure shyly hid under the parent closest to them, peeking between legs to still see him.

"Hey! Red! You're scaring them!" the lycanroc growled to the tyrantrum. He smiled at the cubs. "Hi there, kids. I'm Tripod."

Azure cautiously poked his head out from under Echoes. "Why do you have three legs?"

"Azure!" Evening hissed. "That's rude!"

"Ah, it's all right. They're kids." Tripod shrugged his shoulder, then lowered himself to their level. "I hatched this way, little blue-feathered sneasel. It's just the way I am. Even without a fourth leg, I'm still a normal pokémon."

Big Red nudged Tripod, smiling. "Hey, Tri, Lance's mentor just finished frying some bacon, just so you know."

"WAIT, BACON?!" The lycanroc stood upright, then turned to the two humans and the table. "BACON!" Tripod looked over to the wild family. "OH, I'M SORRY, BUT **BACON**!" He dashed to the older human who stood next to a black stone on a pole and stood even taller, resting his forepaw against the human's side. "I WANT BACON! GIMMIE BACON! AAAAHHHH! I LOVE BACON!" The human said something, then Tripod sat down. "OKAY! OKAY! I'M SITTING, SEE? NOW GIVE ME THE BACON!" The human took something from off the stone which looked like a cooked strip of meat and tossed it. Tripod caught it, then began tugging on the seemingly tough meat.

"THIS IS EMBOAR BACON?! WHERE DOES LANCE'S MENTOR GET SUCH TRULY BEAUTIFUL THINGS?!" Without another word, Tripod ate the bacon.

Pix rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Rookies…"

"Did I mention Lance's mentor has a jar of peanut butter?" Big Red added.

The mawile gasped, losing all form of leaderly dignity as her voice shifted to an excited shriek. "PEANUT BUTTER!" She rushed to the older human, tugging on his pants. "WHERE'S THE PEANUT BUTTER?! WHAT KIND DID YOU GET ME?!"

The human, chuckling, picked up Pix and set her on the table. He took a container out of a bag and gave it to her, along with a stick with a circular scoop at the end. She ripped off the lid with the maw behind her head, then used the scooping stick to eat the contents of the container.

Pix widened her eyes on the first bite. " _It's dark chocolate swirl peanut butter…_ " She ate happily, the human smiling and tossing another strip of bacon for Tripod.

"They're rather strange," Evening commented.

Crusher shrugged. "They're good pokémon, no doubt. But every pokémon has their weird quirks that may not make any sense." He looked at the sneasels. "So who are these?"

"This little one is Azure," Echoes said, gesturing to the sneasel beneath her. "The gray male is Chill and the white-speckled female is Flurry."

Big Red tilted his head at them, then looked at Evening. "Are these your cubs?" Evening nodded. Big Red nodded back understandingly. "Ah, so that's why their feathers are on the wrong ear."

Echoes wished he hadn't said that, darting her gaze to the cubs. She eyed Evening, also bearing a nervous look.

Flurry tilted her head to one side. "On the…? What?"

"Flurry," Echoes said, looking down at her wide, violet eyes. "It is because you are crossbreeds, your feathers are on your right ears instead of your left, likely because it resembles your father's horn."

The speckled sneasel looked at her brothers, who both looked at each other, then their father. They didn't seem to know what to say to that.

Looking somewhat apologetic, Big Red broke their silence. "You kids good at chasing games?"

Azure stood straighter, alert. "We're good, but not as great as our other brother Slick. He's not here right now."

Big Red and Crusher gave the cub inquisitive looks, then stared at his parents in confusion. Evening flinched. Echoes quietly groaned. The tyrantrum raised himself to his full height, towering over the humans behind him. "Well, I'm the tickle monster! Here to tickle my victims until the end of time!" He reached under to Chill, who squealed and dashed off with his siblings in tow. Big Red chased them, allowing Crusher some alone time with Evening and Echoes.

"So, as I asked earlier, how'd you get all the way over here?" Evening tilted his head to one side.

Crusher lowered his eyes. "After your execution…I resigned from the Council. I moved from the resting area for those to be released in the wild to the one for those who want to be taken in by a human. After a few weeks, my human found me and kept visiting me. We played for a bit, then he decided to take me in… But…"

When he didn't speak, Echoes pressed on. "But what?"

The excadrill sighed. "After I was accepted into his care, something changed. He only covers my basic necessities. He feeds me twice a day, trains me daily, and does give me some attention, but… He doesn't do anything else special. While we were still getting to know each other at the reserve, the staff told him my name. I heard them, clear and precise. However, once I came into his care, he only calls me 'Excadrill', like I'm nothing special. However, I am special. My human was looking specifically for me, as he wanted an excadrill with a typhlosion father. I fit that description… But I don't think he sees me as an individual. I think he sees me as…a tool. Nothing more. He wanted a pokémon that could fight the way he wanted, so he got me. I don't think he truly loves me. If I were to run away, he would search for me, but for all the wrong reasons."

Evening gave a low growl. He clawed the ground, uprooting innocent grass. "Pathetic human," he spat.

Crusher flinched.

"Is there a way you can think to improve your situation?" Echoes asked.

The human's pokémon wordlessly shook his head.

The weavile paused, not knowing what to say. "I'm sorry," were the only words she came up with.

"Don't be. None of this is your fault." Crusher sighed. "I chose this. I chose the life of a trainer's pokémon and now I have to live with it."

The three shared more on their lives over the past eight months while Big Red played with the sneasels. They talked for a few hours until Crusher's human had to leave.

Crusher hugged Evening and Echoes. "It's good to see you again, guys."

"It's good to see you again too, Crusher." Evening backed away, giving one last nod. "Bye, friend."

"Stay safe," the excadrill ordered. "And no more near-death experiences for either of you! And certainly don't put one of these little ones through one!"

Evening chuckled. "No promises, Crusher."

"We _will_ meet again one day." Crusher said, nodding. "We will. I can feel it in my claws. One day I will see the two of you again and see these little ones all grown up!"

"I can't guarantee anything, but we will keep an eye out for you." Evening smiled. "It seems your human wants to leave now."

Crusher looked back. "I guess he does. I can't quite understand him yet, but considering Tripod was the rookie before I became the new rookie and he can understand my human, it shouldn't be long I can understand him outside of combat." He turned around, waving. "See you later, friends!"

"Bye, Crusher!" Echoes called.

And that was the last they saw of him.

The rest of the day proceeded as normal. Evening found some food in the garden for the family, which they ate. They relaxed in the early spring sun, watching the cheri trees bloom and dance in the wind.

For once, everything seemed perfect.


	15. Route to the Horizon

**Chapter Fifteen - Route to the Horizon**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Echoes found herself in the snowy plains of her home. She frolicked amid the glittering snow, the kind the elder weaviles said only happened once a year. "Stardust" they called it. It fell on Echoes's pelt, making it shimmer. She stared at her dark pink tails. It seemed as if jewels were woven into the fur.

"Echoes!"

The weavile turned, looking into the coniferous trees. Glimpses of sneasels and weaviles dashing between the trees caught her eye.

"Hey! I'm coming!" she called to them, breaking into a run. She took a few swift strides forward, caught on something, then heard a sickly crack in her hind leg. She cried, clutching the sparkly snow beneath her. Whimpering, she looked back and found her leg bent at an awkward angle. "Someone help me! My leg's broken!"

But the voices of the sneasels and weaviles quieted, getting farther and farther away from their injured comrade.

"Soft! Bird!" Echoes shouted, hoping the wind would carry her voice. "White! Pale! Rocks!" She panted, the scare making her woozy. "Mother! Mother, where are you?!"

As her head grew lighter and less focused, she noticed a burn in her chest. She remembered the awful taste from the dead starly―the poison. It rose up her throat, choking her. She coughed it out, red blemishing white. She crawled away from the blood, cleaning her face on another patch of snow. Her pelt no longer shimmered, now only damp and bristled, as if she'd just gotten out of the lake and shook herself free of the icy water.

She heaved forward, only wishing for cover―staraptor would take injured prey over anything else and mamoswine would crush one of their predators the first time they could.

Snow crunched under the feet of another being behind her. She couldn't look back, no, not now!

 _I need to get to cover! I need to get to Mother!_

The crunching grew closer. Echoes's mind raced.

 _Cresselia and Darkrai, help me! Save me!_

The being's shadow cast over her. She scrambled harder, bringing more pain to her leg, eventually making the bone puncture her skin. The forest's edge drew farther and farther away from her, being shrouded by the ever-growing blizzard.

With a gasp of defeat, Echoes looked up at the beast that would surely kill her.

It was a human, dressed in thick clothing. Behind it stood an unfamiliar fire pokémon. Carefully, the human wrapped its hands around her body.

Echoes panicked, flailing in its grasp. _No! I'm not going to be taken away like all the others!_ She wriggled to try to bite the human, but it held her in such a way that she couldn't. All she could do was allow it to hold her and carry her away. She looked down, noticing three tails swaying beneath her in the breeze.

 _I'm a sneasel again…_ she realized.

The human said something, taking off the cloth around its neck. With great care, the human swaddled her in the cloth, keeping her warm. Even the outside was getting a little too cold for Echoes's liking. The human passed her to the fire pokémon, her warm hands feeling somewhat comforting.

"Don't worry, Sneasel-Child," the fire pokémon said with a soft tone in her voice. "We'll get you somewhere safe."

The human set down its carrying-cloth, rummaging through the items stowed away inside. After a moment, it pulled out a shaped ice object containing a liquid. She expected it to stick to the human's paw covers, but it didn't. Observing it, she found it didn't look like any ice she'd seen. The human twisted the opening, squeezed the top, then released as it pulled it out of the object. It held a long object in front of Echoes's face, touching the end of it to her lips. The object left behind some of the liquid, which she licked up instinctively.

 _Tastes like metal…_

Echoes snuggled into the cloth she was swaddled in. She slowly exhaled, letting herself get warm.

"It's an antidote, Sneasel-Child," the fire pokémon explained, stroking Echoes's forehead. "It takes the poison out of you. Let it sit for a bit. You need rest first."

A long time passed after the human gave Echoes the antidote. However, she only grew worse with each moment. The human tried to get her to drink some more of the metallic liquid―medicine, the fire pokémon called it―and even more potent medicine was tried, but to no avail.

"We're taking you to Snowpoint, Sneasel-Child. There you will be healed."

In the warmth of the fire pokémon's hold, Echoes awoke from her dream.

 _I never got her name, did I?_

* * *

Evening and Echoes walked through the city, on a "sidewalk" as Radiance called it, taking note to keep track of where the park was. Radiance and Flash, the glaceon and jolteon, took care of their cubs while they were gone. Echoes knew they were in good paws.

"So, should we stay here or go to the weavile pack?" Evening asked, veering away from a human on some metal two-wheeled thing.

Echoes stared at the ground, thinking. "The park is very safe, but I'm not sure I like it there."

"Why?"

She paused. "I don't know. I guess…I just miss my family." The weavile looked at her leg, remembering the dream. "I could've grown to be a rallier, but with my leg… What could I do?"

Evening shrugged. "What is there to do in your pack?"

"Not much… There's just hunters, guards, healers, and ralliers as the only real job of someone of my status can receive. Just because I'm the daughter of a diplomat doesn't mean I'll become one, and I'd never be accepted to be a seer."

"I'm guessing a seer is one who communicates to Cresselia and Darkrai, yes?"

"Yes, that's correct." Echoes stood alert to the sound of some shadowy pokémon scavenging in some human garbage, dropping some metal object. "How do your seers work?"

"Skullkeepers are the seers when there's a true pack. The most spiritual in a small group is the oracle. Those who are alone or live with no other absols receive guidance from the harbingers themselves." Evening nearly shoved Echoes off the sidewalk trying to avoid some stampeding children. "Several absols of other walks of life sometimes visited the pack. They fascinated me as a cub."

Echoes nodded. "Anything from the harbingers, speaking of such?"

Evening shook his head. "No, nothing else. I will let you know when I receive a message."

Echoes smiled at him, twining her tails around his. "Of course you will."

Evening smiled back at her, nosing her face. "So for now, we go to your weavile pack, yes?"

"I guess so."

* * *

Echoes observed the cubs at play―Evening was out finding for something to eat close to the park. The sneasels played with the neighboring eevees and even a few other young humans' pokémon. Echoes didn't really know what exactly they were playing, but they weren't getting hurt or hurting any of the other pokémon, so they were fine. The weavile laid on a rather flat rock, soaking in the late morning sun.

Then someone disturbed her sun. She opened one eye to find a large metallic pokémon standing over her.

"Hi, Weavile!"

Echoes sat up, tilting her head in confusion. Once she got a good look at the pokémon, she realized who it was. "Oh, Argenta."

The aggron smiled. "I came to see how you and your family were doing. I see your adorable little sneasels playing over there, but where's the absol?"

"He's out getting something to eat." Echoes looked up at Argenta's silver plating. "So what are you doing here? Is your human here?"

"My human? Nah, not now. That's okay, though, she knows she doesn't need to worry about me." She sat down, the grass that was once beneath her feet flattened against the earth. "I don't think you've told me your names, if I may bother you with that."

"I'm Echoes," the weavile started. "The absol, my mate, is Evening. Our cubs are Chill, Flurry, and Azure."

"Ooh! Icy names! That's so cute!" Argenta looked over at them. "Any real reason for naming them that?"

Echoes shrugged. "We held off on naming them until they were two months old so we could get an idea for their personalities and name them something much more suitable."

The aggron tilted her head to one side. "Huh. Peculiar. My human caught me as a tiny aron. I don't really remember my family, if I even had one. Argenta was the name she gave me, and it's the only name I recognize."

 _Aw, poor thing._ Echoes said instead, "Why Argenta?"

"Oh! When I talked to some of her other pokémon, they said it's an old human word that loosely means 'silver'. It's a pretty name, don't you think?"

The weavile paused. "Yes, yes it is…"

"How did you receive your name?"

"Well, my full name is Echoes Sung at Moon's Rising."

Argenta widened her eyes. "Oh, that's a mouthful…"

"Customary, truth be told. My mother named me this after I responded to the ralliers at night." Echoes looked at her claws.

"Ralliers?"

"Messengers, in a sort. They're trained to run from camp-to-camp and pack-to-pack to deliver messages. They dash off to a place at top speed, never resting until they've made the message. Communication is an important part of our lives."

Argenta stared at the weavile. "Wow, I didn't realize wild pokémon could construct such interesting and complex societies."

Echoes shrugged, trying not to take offense to what her statement implied. "Many pokémon do. Weaviles from other packs and distant lands mentioned of societies, my mate comes from a pack of wild absols, and we've interacted with some groups while it's been just us."

"Oh! You used to live in packs? Why'd you leave?" Before Echoes could speak, Argenta interrupted her. "Let me guess, so you could run off with your forbidden love?"

"Uh, no. I never knew Evening existed until I'd been taken away from my pack." Echoes looked over in the direction he headed in, toward the southern end of the park. "We're hoping to find my old pack, but we don't know where they are or how to get there."

Argenta smiled. "Hey, I've been all over with my human. I'm sure I could help you out."

The words Evening spoke of the harbingers nagged at Echoes's mind. She remained calm as she asked a little more. "Oh, yeah? You think so?"

"Well, I remember a lot of interactions with wild sneasels and weaviles, plus some others other pokémon have talked about. If you describe it, I think I could nail it down for you."

Echoes inhaled a little. "Okay, um… Where I lived, it was really cold and snowing almost all the―"

"Ah, stop right there," Argenta interrupted again. "That's too vague. Be a little more detailed, like where did you live? What major geographical locations could you see?"

The weavile paused for a moment, thinking. "Well, there was a lake in my pack's territory… And the Great Mountain was south of all the weavile packs―"

"I know it!" the aggron interrupted once again, startling Echoes. "You're from Snow-Snow!"

Echoes stared at her in confusion. "What?"

"You see, the humans divide up land―except these territories are much bigger. They call these territories 'regions'. This region is called United… Or at least, that's what I hear from my human and all the other pokémon here call it. Anyway, there's a region that's at the northernmost point of the world called Snow-Snow. One of its defining characteristics is its huge mountain that divides the region in two and the three lakes, one of which is the closest lake to the North Pole. I believe your pack comes from that region."

Widening her eyes, Echoes flared her headdress. "You think that's where I'm from?"

Argenta shrugged. "Well, it's an educated guess."

"Then do you know how to get me and my family to my home?"

The aggron looked upward, thinking. "Um… Oh! One of my human's friends is going to Snow-Snow for a contest! There's a contest going on in Nimbasa and our humans met up there to hang out, but while we were there, one of my human's friend's pokémon said they'll be leaving for Snow-Snow in…about a week and a half."

"Oh! Okay, so how do we go there with them?"

"Just be at the airport in nine days. I'll check on you as often as I can until then."

"Wait, the airport?" Echoes asked.

Argenta looked to the side, then at her. "The place where we met―that's the airport. My human's friend and her pokémon are going to Snow-Snow by plane. There is another option, being taking a ship from Castelia to Canalave or Sunnyshore, then just walking along the shore northward until you reach the weavile territories, but that'll take you at least four months. This option, you'll get there in one."

Echoes looked away, thinking. "I think I need to talk it over with Evening before answering."

"All right, take your time." Argenta waved her claws in an "I understand" sort of manner. "But don't take too much time."

The pure black weavile nodded. "Yes, of course."

The aggron stood up, grunting. "Well, I'd better get back to my human. She wants to pick me up near the hotel we're staying at." After getting a confused look from Echoes, she quickly added, "Right, you don't know what that is…"

"All right," Echoes said, smiling. "I guess I'll see you later."

Argenta nodded back. "Goodbye! I'll see you in a day or two!" She walked away, the sneasels now done playing and gawking at her. Argenta smiled at them, but the three shyly shuffled into a blob of dark gray, medium-gray, and speckled white. The aggron chuckled and walked away.

The sneasels walked up to their mother, settling in beside her. "Who was that, Ma?" Azure asked, curling up in his mother's forepaws.

 _For the love of Cresselia, can't you stay clean for three minutes?_ Their mother began grooming his head. "She was the pokémon we met at the metal bird roost."

"The one that called us cute?" Chill asked, wrinkling his nose and settling a little distant from his mother and clutchmates.

Echoes chuckled. "Yes, the one that called you cute."

Flurry climbed on her mother's back, lying in her soft fur. "When'll Da be back?"

"When he finishes hunting, Flurry." Echoes nosed the speckled sneasel off her back. "Go back to the burrow, all three of you. It's time for your nap. You've played hard, now you need to sleep hard."

Azure didn't argue, obediently standing up and walking over to the burrow just a bit away. Flurry surprised Echoes by not arguing either. Chill also surprised Echoes, but for the opposite reason.

"I need to stay here so you don't get caught, Ma." he protested, sidling up to her and leaning his head sleepily on the weavile's belly.

She smiled, grooming his pelt as he nodded off between her paws.

 _Sleep, little warrior. You'll need it._

* * *

"Oi! You two! Absol and Weavile!" a voice cried from above Evening and Echoes walking on the streets during sunset.

Evening bristled, shielding Echoes. "Where are you?"

A swoobat dangled down from a tree near one of the buildings. She paused, eyeing them both over with a furrowed brow. "Umm… Are you two Evening the absol and Echoes the weavile?"

The couple paused, then the absol broke the silence. "Yes, we are. Why do you ask?"

The swoobat looked at them curiously. "Oh, why did I ask…? Oh, yes! There's a little sneasel looking for his parents and the Great Swordsman of the Forests, Poison Ivy, sent me to search for you!"

"Slick's looking for us?!" Echoes asked, dumbfounded. "Where is he?!"

The swoobat thought, placing a claw in her mouth. "In the forest north of here, if he hasn't moved in the past week all the swoobats have been searching for you. Probably not."

"Is he okay?!" Evening questioned.

"Last I saw of him, a sweet young mienshao's taking care of him. Very nice girl, she is; very reputable family, yes."

 _Thank you, Cresselia and Darkrai!_ "Thank you for helping him search for us!"

"Let him know he has a week to come here, okay?" Evening said. "Now go! Tell him we're okay!"

"Oh! Okay! I'll go now!" The swoobat flapped unsteadily for a moment, then took off into the skies.

"Let Slick know we love him!" Evening yelled up at her.

"I'll be sure of that!"

Echoes smiled, rubbing her head against Evening's shoulder, her throat swelling up. "Oh, Evening… Slick will be with us once again…"


	16. Questions of the Horizon

**Chapter Sixteen - Questions of the Horizon**

In the cool foggy dawn, Evening visited the burrow just a little ways away. Flash the jolteon watched his older three children, then noticed the absol.

Evening nodded. "Good morning, Flash."

Flash nodded back. "Morning." The jolteon shifted his paws, looking away.

"May I sit with you?" Evening asked, preparing himself to sit.

Flash shrugged. "Sure."

As Evening settled on the dew-covered ground, Flash spoke. "May I ask a somewhat intruding question?"

The absol paused, then nodded. "I guess that depends on what you have to ask. Either way, ask what you want answered."

Flash watched his cubs wrestle with a human's skitty, then asked his question. "Why do horrible things happen whenever there's absols involved in anything?"

"That's a bit of a presumptuous question," Evening pointed out.

"I've heard stories," the jolteon admitted. "Stories including cruel world-breaking creatures and others of just misunderstood pokémon. Things often don't work the way others assume, though, so I'd like to hear what a true absol has to say."

Evening shifted on the grass, composing himself. "Disasters are mostly caused by the chaos pokémon of legend. We absols were made to foretell of them." He paused, thinking. "I guess that's pretty much it. Of course, some of us are―"

"Excuse me, Absol," a voice said behind the two.

Evening and Flash turned to the interrupter. It was an absol, a female with long, well-groomed fur and a charm attached to her horn. Her mainfur was pure white, like fresh snow, unlike Evening's slightly off-white fur. She bore an elongated face with wide, sky-blue eyes. Her horn wasn't a simple flat curve, but spiraled like a gogoat's horn.

After an awkward pause, Evening said, "May I help you?"

The other absol shook her fluffy tail. "Um, may we talk?"

Evening stared at her, eyeing her over. _She doesn't seem threatening… Then again, things are not always what they seem._ He slowly nodded. "What do you wish to talk about?"

"Are you a human's absol?" she asked.

Evening shook his head. "No, but if I may be so bold, what is your name?"

The female sat up, alert. "My name is Prophetess. Since you aren't a human's absol, does that mean you are wild?"

"Yes, I am. If I'm not a human's absol, then I must be a wild one."

Prophetess sat down, eyes wide. "Tell me about wild absols. What is it like being one? Do you live with others? What are they like? Or if you didn't, did you once? Do you want to go back to them? What is it like having to catch your food every day? I have so many questions!"

"PROPHETESS!" another pokémon yelled from halfway across the park. As she neared, Evening recognized a froslass.

The human's absol rolled her eyes, scoffing. "Ignore her. I do."

"Prophetess, you really need to stop fussing over _every single absol_ you see from afar!" the froslass scolded, placing a hand on the ribbon around her waist.

"You're still sore from that glalie thing two years ago, so stop killing my dreams!" Prophetess waved her paw in a "go away" motion. "Go back to your hail ball and leave me alone!"

The froslass glared at the female absol. "I'm only staying to make sure you don't talk his ears off."

"ANYWAY," Prophetess hissed. "Let me start over. Did you once have a human?"

Evening shook his head. "No, but I lived in a reserve for two years."

"What for?"

"I got this from a mamoswine." Evening pushed aside the fur on his belly to reveal the jagged scar. "Some humans found me and nursed me back to health."

"So you were still a wild pokémon before you went to the reserve?"

Evening nodded. "Yes, I was."

"Did you live with other absols?"

"Yes, a fairly large pack; about fifty absols."

"What was it like there?"

Evening shrugged. "Routine. Catch a bidoof here, catch a pachirisu there, and if you're lucky, you may end up with a staravia. Return back to the camp and find a way to entertain yourself, be it with relatives or friends until it's time to sleep. After a decent night's sleep, get back up and do it all over again."

With an excited smile, Prophetess widened her eyes at each thing Evening said. "It sounds amazing… Tell me more!"

"About what?" Evening looked over at Flash, also seeming as if he wanted to know a little on Evening's home culture.

"Anything, sir!" Prophetess said, shaking her tail. "If you need a prompt, then were there any really important absols in the pack? Or did your pack organize its members in some fashion?"

Evening nodded. "Well, our chief is an important, but not the most important, absol in the pack. He looks over the rest of the absols and makes sure all of them are safe. Then there's the skullkeeper, the most important absol in the pack. She is the spiritual advisor to the chief, making sure all that he does is right. She will name the next chief if the chief dies before naming the one to succeed him. The skullkeeper's other jobs include naming young, interpreting anything that may come about like dreams or visions, and burying the dead. Some skullkeepers also enjoy the job of telling the younger generation of our histories and legends.

"Then there are the chief's advisors, about five to seven absols who the chief trusts with his life. Usually the next chief comes from one of the advisors, but sometimes that's not the case. Then there's the common absol who hunt and fight for the pack, the three to five healers who look after the physical health of the pack, and the two or three aged mothers who look over the expecting females and eggs."

Prophetess listened with intent. "It's so fascinating! Sir, I'd like to hear more on the skullkeepers! Is it true that some absols are born with mindreading and precognition?"

Evening flicked an ear in irritation. "I've not heard of such, but some are able to sense the imminent. It's a learned ability, rather than a given one."

"OH THANK ARCEUS, YOU'VE FINALLY CLEARED THAT UP!" the froslass yelled, throwing her arms up. "You will not _believe_ how many times I've heard, 'I'm having a vision that we will be victorious in this battle!' and promptly get ourselves served right afterward! Then the many times of, 'Do not worry, because I've foreseen we will be treated to ice cream after this in all our favorite flavors!' and then nothing happens! Thank you for stopping her from doing that…"

Evening gazed at the froslass, then the absol, and back again. _Is this what uncultured absols think of their wild relatives? We're here to reassure others of how amazing they are? How stupid._

Another part of him argued, _They don't know any better._

 _They should,_ he responded back.

"So how do I learn the ability to 'sense the imminent'?" Prophetess asked.

"DON'T ANSWER HER!" The froslass waved her arms in desperation. "We don't need her spewing predictions left and right!"

Evening, a little flustered, shrugged. "I don't know how to sense the imminent, so I can't tell you even if I wanted to. It's an ability that's usually learned by skullkeepers."

Prophetess looked down. "Oh, okay."

"But I personally have received warnings before."

She looked up. "What is it like?"

"It happens in dreams. A chaos pokémon of legend in the form of a greater absol arrive in a dream to deliver a message to you." Evening paused, then added, "Do you know what a chaos pokémon of legend is? Or a greater absol?"

Prophetess thought for a bit before answering. "I think I know what a greater absol is. Is it like a mega form? With pretty pseudo-wings and an elegant curved horn?"

Evening nodded. "Yes, that's a greater absol. What about the chaos pokémon?"

She shrugged. "I don't think so."

"I'm not sure how to explain it to you, but they're pokémon who created us to deliver warnings of their actions. Like the Thunderer warns of storms, the Whisperer warns of unneeded deaths, and the Rumbler warns of earthquakes or volcanoes."

Prophetess slowly nodded. "Are there any that give you good visions?"

"The Idealist, maybe, considering he is the pokémon of ideals, but that's not what we were made for. We are to warn pokémon and humans of the chaos pokémon's messes or collateral damage." Evening looked over at Flash, the jolteon seeming very interested in the conversation. He continued. "May I ask why you wish to know all this?"

"Oh! I've been born and raised with humans all my life. I've always fantasized what living in the wild is like, since I've never been there. Thank you for telling me, sir!"

The froslass looked over at Prophetess. "You haven't even asked his name, have you?"

The female absol shook her head, seeming flustered. "No, I haven't." She looked to Evening. "Forgive me, I'm horrible with these sort of things. What's your name?"

"My name is Black Evening, but I'm referred to as Evening."

"Oh! All right! Thank you, Evening! I've longed to know what my wild brethren are like, so thank you for telling me all about them."

Evening nodded. "You're welcome."

Prophetess shook her tail, then looked over at the froslass. "All right, Ice Queen, I'll go back to Kayleigh. Are you happy now?"

The froslass rolled her eyes. "Stop calling me that."

"Good to know you'll never be happy!" the female absol joked, nudging the froslass as she stood up. "Thank you again, Evening! I'll never forget you or your words! Farewell!"

Evening watched Prophetess and the froslass leave to a female human halfway across the park. The human pet Prophetess on the head, then a reddish light enveloped the absol, her form disappearing after a heartbeat. The froslass followed the human southward, the human looking at Evening and Flash with a smile as she passed them from afar.

"Humans are strange," Flash commented. "But the pokémon that live under them are even stranger."

Evening slowly nodded. "Yes, they are."


	17. Visions of the Horizon

**Chapter Seventeen - Visions of the Horizon**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Echoes dreamed she was an absol, with pretty white fur and a sleek horn like slate. She visited vaguely familiar places: her pack's camps, the reserve, the mountain, the park, showing off her beautiful new self to everyone around her. She nuzzled Evening, purring for the first time in what seemed like ages… When did he last purr? She couldn't remember; shame she couldn't.

Behind them were their absol children, all of them. Even Slick, Hope, Tree, and Stone were there. The weavile-now-absol stretched her dream-conjured wings around half her children, while Evening did the same with the other half. She rested her head on Evening's shoulder, taking in his sweet scent. On her back, she felt his tongue run over her shoulders a few times, then rub against her.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Evening said. "Everyone's here."

Then when Echoes looked up, the family was gone. Evening was gone. The cubs were gone. Even their scents were gone.

She looked down at herself, finding her black legs and pinkish neck feathers. Looking around, she realized she was nowhere, in a dark abyss of endless black.

She curled her tails in, pulling her legs closer to her and huddling in a dark ball in the nothingness. Hating the grim silence, she hummed a Weavilian tune to herself. She couldn't remember the exact lyrics, but they were along the lines of a rallier running back to her cubs and promising them she'd raise them well. She knew the melody, and improvised a verse addressed to the rallier's beloved.

It did quell the loneliness, but it also somewhat amplified it.

Echoes's humming became airy, holding back the sobs. With all her struggle, the tears won. She broke down in a fit of sobbing.

"Oh, my dear child, don't you cry."

Echoes looked up, finding a white weavile with a pale aurora of color in her fur and even more dazzling feathers. The white weavile touched Echoes's forehead with her nose, the darkness gave way to flecks of light, a starry scape with pale moons drifting about.

Echoes relaxed a little. "Where's my family?"

The white weavile gave a soft smile of sympathy. "They're safe." With a pale pink claw, she sliced the air beside her open. She gestured for Echoes to come to her side. "You can watch them here."

As she neared, Echoes noted the outlook overlooked several things at once. In one image, Evening walked alone on an unfamiliar snowy mountainside. In another, Flurry stalked a dream-made replica of herself bedazzled in icy jewels. In the third, Chill followed Evening in the unfamiliar snowy mountainside, far enough Evening couldn't detect him in their shared dream. In the last, Azure slept in a sleep without dreams.

"Does that bring peace to your mind?" the white weavile asked.

Echoes nodded. "Yes, thank you, but…" The white weavile raised a brow as Echoes paused. "Where's Slick?"

"He's been sleeping irregularly. He's so determined to find you, he and his escort aren't getting a lot of sleep." The white weavile closed the window into other dreams and curled her tails around her paws. "But that isn't why I brought you here."

Echoes nodded, not quite processing the words she said. "All right, what is it, then?"

The white weavile stood up, walking away while gesturing for Echoes to come with her. The black weavile followed.

The two went on for several moments, the white weavile not saying anything and Echoes not daring to say anything.

Finally, Echoes dared. "Who are you?"

The white weavile looked back, her crescent-shaped jewel gleaming in the starlight. "Someone who cares."

Echoes tried to process it, but couldn't quite figure it out.

"We're here." The white weavile showed a cluster of stars arranged in a disk-shape. She turned back at Echoes and gestured for her to go. "After you."

After looking back at the starry scape, she stepped into the starry disk. Her eyes slammed shut to keep out the brightness, but when it dulled, she opened them again.

She was in a human city, in a dark abandoned alleyway.

The white weavile joined Echoes's side a heartbeat later.

Echoes looked around, watching murkrow huddle in windowsills and flutter from building-to-building. "Where are we?"

"Where you will soon be," she answered. "Follow me." The white weavile led Echoes to another sneasel in the alleyway. He wasn't like any sneasel Echoes had ever seen. Sure, she'd seen a white sneasel descended from a far-off pack and even the lithe body and serrated claws of battle-bred weaviles, but this one wasn't like either of them.

He had shiny gray fur, almost like his fur was silver. Dotted along his fur were white speckles, like fallen snow. Flurry's speckles seemed like fat snowflakes, whereas this sneasel's speckles were more like iced dew droplets, shimmering in any light he stepped in. His feathers were blue like Azure's, but more lustrous, like the sheen of a smooth sheet of ice. He had a dainty frame, not small, but not muscled either.

What was a young pokémon with this amount of beauty doing out in dirty streets?

"You can let go of your breath," the white weavile said, bringing attention to Echoes she had been holding her breath in anticipation. "He can't see or hear us. If he hears us, it's just the mutters of a distant, uninteresting conversation. If he looks this way, all he sees are shadows and the illusion of rising heat. We do have to remain somewhat quiet and watch where we step, or complications will arise. We can't have anyone see you while you're partially here and oceans away asleep."

Echoes looked over at her. "I'm asleep?" She exhaled, holding her forelegs and trying to think it over. _How can I tell?_

Instinctually, she dug her claws into her skin, almost drawing blood.

 _I can feel pain. Why can I feel pain when I'm dreaming? This doesn't feel right…_ The black weavile's breathing heightened, staring at the white weavile. _Who is she? She didn't even tell me her name. Can I trust her? Or anything she says? What if I'm not dreaming and I'm actually―_

"WHERE'S MY FAMILY?!" she yelled, panicking.

"Echoes! Shush!" The white weavile dragged the black one behind a large garbage bin just before the silver speckled sneasel noticed them.

Echoes trembled, trying to regulate her breathing. "Are they going to be okay? Will Evening be able to raise them alone? How will he integrate into the pack without me?" Her mind thrashed like a cascoon itching to break out of its cocoon. "I need to see them!"

The white weavile clutched Echoes's forelegs, shaking her. "Quiet, Echoes! We can't be seen! And don't you wake up on me!"

"But my cubs! I can't die now! Not when I have another clutch on the way!"

"You're fine, Echoes, calm down! Breathe… You're perfectly fine."

Echoes eventually calmed down, but she still was wary. "So… I'm only dreaming?"

"Yes," the white weavile said. "You're dreaming." She paused, then added, "Are you all right?"

Echoes nodded. "I guess so… Did he see us?"

"No, he didn't, thankfully." The white weavile looked around, then back to Echoes. "Come along now, but try not to have any more dream-induced panic attacks." She reared up on her hind legs, taking Echoes's front paw and pulling her along. "You're probably familiar with the tale of the Sheen Plague?"

"Yes, I am," the black weavile replied.

"That was what we almost started. Before humans harnessed the power of pokémon, about a millennium or two ago, an amaura saw a dreamwalker making too much noise and crystallized over."

"The tale said it was a snorunt."

"The tale was passed over dozens of generations and storytellers augmented it. Some packs say it was a bergmite, some say a vanillite, some even say a vulpix saw the dreamwalker. But either way, the crystallization spread across the land. I and my sister were able to stop it, but those are the consequences of a dreamwalker being seen in the waking world."

The white and the black weavile found the silver speckled sneasel nearing two burly houndooms.

"Here we are," she said, dropping down on all fours again. "Watch and listen."

The two houndooms blocked the sneasel's path. "Who are you? What's your business here?"

The sneasel shied back. "I'm Quartz and I'm here to collect the deal that Pyroar and I have agreed upon."

The two houndoom looked at each other, then to the sneasel. "Come along," the one on the right said, turning into the alleyway. Quartz followed him to a larger collection of houndooms, but a few houndour were sprinkled here and there. Sitting on a trash box, protected by seven or so houndooms, was a persian wearing a tattered and bejeweled collar.

"Pyroar," the houndoom said. "This kid says you have a deal with him."

The persian stared at Quartz. "State your name and what we've agreed upon."

Quartz shifted uncomfortably, all eyes on him. "My name is Quartz and you said you'd give me food in exchange for something pretty."

Pyroar nodded. "Now where is that something pretty?"

"I'd at least like to see the food I'll receive." Quartz shrugged. "Motivation for what I'm going to give you."

After staring at him for a while, Pyroar flicked his tail and a houndour scrambled to get something. The houndour brought a small box of freshly-killed prey and berries.

Pyroar stared down at the little sneasel. "Now, what's the something pretty I want?"

With shaky paws, Quartz felt the feather behind his left ear. "The feather of a sneasel bred for beauty." He stared at Pyroar with a little hesitation and fear, then ripped the feather out. He held it out to Pyroar with both paws. "This is all I have."

Pyroar raised a brow, but flicked his tail once more. Two houndour approached Quartz, one taking the feather, the other giving him the box.

When they returned to their spots, Quartz bowed in respect. "Thank you, Pyroar."

Pyroar waved his paw for the sneasel to leave. What the sneasel didn't see was a signal the persian gave to a houndoom meaning, "follow him".

Echoes looked over at the white weavile. The white weavile nodded. "We'll follow him too."

The trip back was long, but Quartz eventually led the houndoom and weaviles to a makeshift shelter covered in some sort of hard cloth. Beneath the hard cloth was a box, sheltering five other sneasels.

A female glared at him. "Where were you?! Where'd you get that?! What happened to your feather?!" She hissed a curse. "Didn't I tell you to stay here and watch over Prism?"

"Bik-Bik was watching over her," Quartz said. "Prism's fine."

The female growled. "Well, I'm not if my siblings just keep running to who-knows-where and came back with missing feathers!"

Quartz set down the box, showing the eight or so berries placed inside. "I also came back with food; _real food_. Not this garbage we have to scrounge for."

The other sneasels eyed the berries hungrily. The female dug through it and even found a piece of human food.

"Who'd you conspire with to get this?" she hissed.

"Praline! Stop it!" a small female said. "Quartz came back with food. Isn't that all that matters?"

Praline stared at the small female. "If he doesn't get his punishment for his foolish actions, then everyone will be running around trying to be the hero!"

A small male nosed Quartz. "I think you did a good thing. Praline's just being unreasonable again."

"I AM NOT BEING UNREASONABLE!" Praline screeched, startling all five sneasels. "I'M TRYING TO MAKE SURE NONE OF YOU GET YOURSELVES KILLED! HOW IS THAT UNREASONABLE?!"

The shelter erupted into a screechfest, a brother siding with Praline and the other brother siding with Quartz, all yelling at each other. The resting female just laid there, staring at them with a disturbed look on her face, while the smallest female curled up and covered her ears.

"STOP FIGHTING!" the resting female yelled in a hoarse voice. "You're all making Bik-Bik cry!" She pointed to the smallest sneasel in a sobbing ball. "Was what Quartz did reckless and stupid? Maybe. But he got us food. Does he deserve punishment for running off? At least a milder one. For now, let's just ration out the food for the next few days and enjoy what he's done." She looked over at Quartz and nodded. "Thank you, Quartz."

The white weavile touched Echoes's shoulder. "Come on. We've seen what we came for."

Echoes stared at the siblings under the hard cloth. "What happened to them?"

"Some humans believe pokémon are no more than accessories or decorations. They're nothing more than pretty things to look at until they aren't needed anymore. Then they're thrown away."

The black weavile eyed the world fading around them. "Why have you shown them to me?"

The white weavile shrugged. "What do you think?" She smiled, parts of her becoming wispy.

Echoes looked back where the sneasels' makeshift shelter was. "I want to help them."

The white weavile nodded. "They're in the city you'll be in when you finish your metal bird ride. They're actually right next to the metal bird roost." She stroked Echoes's headdress. "That's all I wanted to show you. Remember it when you awake."

And Echoes drifted into a sleep with no dreams.


	18. Braving the Horizon

**Chapter Eighteen - Braving the Horizon**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

"Here we are!" Argenta said, the sneasels balanced on her head. "Time to come down now, little sneasels."

"You can see everything from up here!" Flurry yipped as Argenta gently moved her off her head and to the ground. The white-speckled sneasel looked at Evening. "Da, will we ever grow that big?"

Evening shook his head. "No."

After placing the last sneasel on the ground, Argenta looked around. "Keep your eye out for an empoleon, a clefairy, and a swablu… Oh! There they are!" Argenta waved an arm at them, the clefairy noticing her first. The clefairy dashed towards them, gesturing for the others to come along.

"ARGIE!" The swablu landed on the aggron's head and chirped happy high notes.

Argenta chuckled. "Missed you too, Cotton." She looked over at the empoleon and clefairy and gestured to the family. "This is that wild family I told you about. The absol there is Evening, the weavile is Echoes, and these adorable little sneasels are their children!"

Cotton glanced down at the sneasels. "Aww! They're so cute!"

The aggron turned to Evening and Echoes. "These are my friends who are going to Snow-Snow. This one here is Cotton―" she dipped her head just a little. "And those two are Ty and Rincess."

Rincess waved in greeting, while Evening and Echoes nodded back.

"Which of you is going to be the on-board pokémon?" Argenta asked.

Cotton fluttered a little. "Me! I will!"

Echoes tilted her head. "What does that mean?"

"It means Cotton will be going with their coordinator on the flight." Argenta answered.

Evening struck an idea. "Will she be out longer than us?" When Cotton nodded, Evening added, "Can you look for our son? He looks like one of them, but thinner and pitch-black."

The swablu nodded again. "I can do that! I'll go search for him right now! What's his name?"

"Slick," Evening answered.

"Got it! Slick! I'll be looking for a tiny sneasel named Slick!" Cotton flew away, gaining a vantage point in the sky.

After a moment, Argenta nodded to Ty and Rincess. "These two will help you with getting to the plane with them." She smiled, first to the human's pokémon. "I'll be seeing you later, guys."

"Tell your friends we bid them good luck!" Rincess said, waving.

Argenta turned to the family. "I'm glad to have met you. I hope you stay safe out there…the wild can be dangerous."

Echoes shrugged. "We can handle it."

With a small smile, Argenta nodded. "You take care." She looked down at their sneasels. "I hope you remember me."

The sneasels nodded, all three swaying their tails back and forth.

"Well…bye, then." The aggron looked at her feet, then stood by the gate of the fence. "If Cotton finds Slick, I'll help him on this way."

"Thank you, Argenta," Echoes said, nodding. "And thank you for helping us.

Rincess and Ty walked to the gate, the clefairy touching one of Argenta's claws and the empoleon nudging foreheads with her. The family followed them.

The two human's pokémon led them through the long system. Soon enough, the family was in one crate with Ty in another and Rincess in a smaller one.

They waited for about an hour until they were loaded up into the big metal bird that Rincess called an "airplane".

"How long will it be until that door closes?" Echoes asked.

Rincess thought for a moment, then answered, "Less than an hour, why?"

Echoes sat down. She didn't answer, curling up into a ball in the back of the crate as if trying to nap. Evening's heart hurt for her and for himself. He knew what she―and he himself―feared.

Evening watched the conkeldurr and machamps loading up the airplane with crates, hoping to see his son in one of the small ones.

After a long while, the door closed.

Slick never came.

"He didn't make it…" Evening breathed. "How will he find us?"

Echoes didn't hear him, as she slept. The cubs didn't know what to say to him.

Just after they took flight, a swanna outside of a crate introduced herself and six others as helpers for the pokémon in the airplane. If they needed anything, they were to ask them for it. "In one hour, we'll serve lunch to everyone. After that, we'll have story exchanges until dinner. And after that, everyone can go to sleep. For now, get some rest or talk quietly among yourselves."

Soon enough, lunch came. The swannae gave out berries or dry-looking pellets depending on the tag attached to each crate. For Evening, a sitrus berry was served. For Echoes, an aguav. And for the cubs, a small bowl of sliced-up berries of varying kinds.

The pokémon quietly ate over the course of the hour. Then when it ended, the swannae let everyone know of the story exchanging and offered for someone to start.

"I once knew a sceptile," a salazzle said from halfway across the plane. "We met when his human caught little ol' me. Not surprising, considering my glossy white skin." Evening guessed to himself she must be sparkling. "But because of my exotic beauty, the other salandits practically worshipped me. But when my sceptile met me, he wouldn't listen to me, and I found that odd…"

When she finished, an armaldo told a sad tale of a father losing his son to the thing everyone warned the child of. After his tale, a noivern told an epic of a powerful cave dragon, passed down through generations of the masters of their cave. After the epic, a simipour told a funny story, almost everyone in the airplane laughing. Even Evening managed a chuckle or two. After his story, Ty the empoleon spoke up.

"Long ago, before the world was in an eternal state of winter, there lived the empress of the ice, an empoleon called Zimaburja. She was the most beautiful of any creature in all eternity, the wisest of any ruler in history, and the largest empoleon to ever exist. Her lands of ice were peaceful. Her subjects were happy. All wrongs were made right in her reign.

"One day, a great beast arose out of the ground, shattering the once-beautiful land the birds of the north called home. The beast was known as the Great Volcanic Demon. He rent the ice asunder, separating families and devouring those who could not flee in time, mostly piplups and the elderly. Empress Zimaburja would not have it so.

"She confronted the Great Volcanic Demon and their battle lasted a hundred days and nights. They were always at an impasse. Empress Zimaburja was worn, as was the Great Volcanic Demon. However, the empress could do one thing to end the battle there, but it would be the ultimate sacrifice. With all the power she mustered, she encased the demon in ice, an ice strong enough to not only counter the melting fire he was made of, but to snuff it out completely. But of course, it came at a price. Empress Zimaburja shifted into the form of a never-melting ice and died. However, the ice from her sacrifice spread, and the Era of Eternal Winter began, lasting for hundreds of years."

More pokémon shared stories. Finally, Echoes offered one.

"There was once a chieftess of a weavile pack. This pack had a custom where names are granted after a great defining feat. This weavile had no name; she was merely known as 'Chieftess'. Chieftess grew angered that the Lady of the Moon would not listen to the prayers of her pack, so she resolved to seize the Lady's attention since she was no longer listened to.

"And she did that by stealing the moon."

Echoes paused for dramatic effect, the expectant silence building the tension. The weavile held a pose, her movements memorized from the retellings of the story in her pack. "Chieftess journeyed the Northlands, scaled the Great Mountain, and ascended the heavens with her own storms. However, sensing the moon was endangered, the Shadow of the Moon attacked her, allowing nothing to happen to it. Chieftess bled, and her blood fell on the moon, turning it red. From then on, she was called 'She Whose Blood Stains the Moon Red'. She lives on at the top of the Great Mountain, itching to steal the moon, but whenever she does, the Shadow of the Moon protects it."

And Echoes's tale was the final one before everyone ate again and went to sleep.

The cubs had long since crashed midway through their meal, leaving Evening and Echoes somewhat alone to talk.

Echoes settled close to Evening's chest, resting her head on his side. The absol groomed her back, feeling the tension in her muscles. He nosed the back of her head, then whispered, "I'm sorry. I can't bring our son back."

The weavile let out the tiniest of gasps.

Evening leaned his forehead on her nape, wishing he could just call Slick's name and hear the sneasel respond, then come over to their crate.

"I'm sorry I keep dragging you through hell and back. You don't deserve it."

"Don't be sorry, Evening." Echoes looked up at him, her icy blue eyes a blizzard of warring emotions.

Loving.

Fearful.

Hopeful.

Sorrowful.

Content.

"I chose you as my mate," the weavile said, her muscles relaxing. "You and I are going to stay together. When you're in pain, I'm in pain. When you're happy, I'm happy. When you're going through hell, I'll be with you every step of the way. I'm here for you, always know that."

Evening buried his nose into her shoulder, holding back bubbling emotions. His throat swelled, disabling his voice, save for voiceless sobs that slipped through all his instincts and internal defenses. Echoes comforted him, trying to talk through her own emotions.

"Echoes," the absol said, trying to keep his voice as normal as possible.

"Yes, Evening?" She too seemed to be trying to keep her voice normal.

"I love you." His voice cracked, followed by silent weeping.

Echoes nuzzled him. "I know, Evening. I know."

They comforted each other, supported each other.

Evening drifted to sleep to his mate's sweet scent.

When he awoke, it was time to leave the airplane.

Time to move on.

 **End of Part Two**


	19. Arrived to Farther Lands

**Part Three - Across Farther Lands**

 **Chapter Nineteen - Arrived to Farther Lands**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

After getting off the plane, the family readied to depart from their escorts.

"Thank you for all of this," Echoes said, nodding.

"Glad to have helped!" Rincess chirped.

Flurry spoke up. "Hey, is that a group of sneasels over there?"

Everyone turned their attention to five sneasels huddled in a makeshift shelter. They looked quite different from other sneasels; their fur wasn't black or gray, but silver. They all bore spots like stars or tiny snowflakes. The most surprising part of them was their feathers, which were a lustrous bright blue.

 _The sneasels the dreamwalker showed me_ _…_

Ty slowly nodded. "I believe those are the failed sneasel cubs of Vivian Skyes. But that's odd… There were six cubs in Borealia's clutch."

Echoes's heart nearly stopped. She counted them again. _Three_ _ _…_ four_ _ _…_ five…_ She searched for the sixth, but couldn't find a sixth silver sneasel. _Where is the last one?_

"Vivian Skyes?" Evening asked. "That sounds like a human name. They're human's pokémon?"

"They were before their coordinator learned they weren't perfectly-bred." Rincess looked them over from a distance. "And I can see why. Minor flaws, but it makes all the difference in contests."

The empoleon nodded. "That bigger female has too broad a face. And that other one is too small. One male's spots are too big."

The clefairy joined in. "Yes, that other one's feathers aren't shiny enough. And that last one doesn't even have a feather! Have you heard of a sneasel born without a feather?!"

Echoes stared at the featherless sneasel. _He wasn't born without it. He gave it to feed his siblings_ _ _…_ but where's that sixth sneasel?_ She remembered the sick sneasel from her dream was a female and the human's pokémon had only listed two females. She remembered three.

 _Oh, Cresselia, take care of that poor child. She barely had a chance…_

"Evening?" Echoes asked.

He turned her way and blinked, his face piqued with interest. "Yes, Plume?"

"I want to see them."

The absol eyed the street pokémon for a moment, then nodded. "Sure thing."

Echoes wasted no time walking the short distance to the shelter. A male noticed her first, the one with "too big of spots". He nudged his brother, the featherless sneasel, to catch his attention. Soon all five stared at the weavile standing near their shelter entrance. Hushed whispering murmured through the shelter, but no one dared to approach the visitor.

The female with "too broad a face" stepped forward, her luminous violet eyes steeled with bravery and love for her clutchmates. "Who are you?"

"I'm Echoes Sung at Moon's Rising."

The eldest sneasel stared at her with a wary glare. "That's a weird name."

Echoes shrugged. "It's a bit different, being that my name has 'Moon' in it, but the overall structure of the name is quite normal." She nodded to the silver one. "But you can call me Echoes. And you are?"

For a while, she hesitated. "Praline," she said finally.

The wild weavile nodded. "Glad to meet you, Praline."

"Now why are you here?" Praline tilted her head a little. "Do you want me and my clutchmates to join your gang, too? Well, you're too late for that."

"Gang?"

"New to the streets of Hearthome?" an unfamiliar voice growled from behind Echoes. The weavile turned to find a slender houndoom pacing beside her. The canine's coat was ragged with patches of fur missing―battle scars, Echoes guessed―and half her face seemed burned, melted, and scarred from fights. "I bet so. I've not heard of a weavile from the northlands being around here. And considering that we're right by the airport, you just flew in from somewhere, am I correct?"

Echoes gave a nod. "Yes, that's true."

The houndoom returned the statement with a nod of her own. "Good to know you won't lie to my face." She turned to Praline standing beside her. "This pokémon giving you trouble?"

Praline shook her head. "No, Hel. _She was just about to leave_." She gave Echoes a hard gaze, one unlike any gaze she'd seen from what seemed to be a six-month-old cub.

The weavile cast her gaze between the houndoom and the silver sneasel. Trying to brush aside the aggressiveness in Praline's tone, Echoes gave a semi-formal bow and said, "I would like to get to know you better, Praline. I hope we'll meet again."

"You think I want to meet you just because you're of my kind?" Praline snarled. "Because you're wrong! Now get out of here before I report you to the boss." The sneasel bristled, trying herself look bigger, but she still looked like a mere bug to the houndoom beside her. "Or worse, I'll have Hel thrash you to a bloody mess and have _you_ report to the boss."

Echoes backed away, flaring her headdress instinctively. "I won't bother you."

"You'd better not."

With one last glance, Echoes returned to her family. She found Evening talking with Ty, the empoleon pointing with a wing.

Evening nodded and she heard a bit of his words. "―that'll be a good place for us to stay."

"Then you'd better get going," Ty remarked. "Remember, head south until you see the roserade statue, then go east for a while. When you see a statue of a milotic battling a gyarados, that's the park. I heard from a gardevoir hailing from here said that the park is out of Pyroar's territory. Your family should be safe."

"Thank you, Ty."

"I know some other coordinator's pokémon who frequent the park. I'll ask them to check up on you. There's Geisha, a female lurantis, Goldburn, a male arcanine…a meowstic couple, Eliza and Champ, and a male roserade, Primrose." The empoleon nodded. "We'll check on you soon."

Evening nodded back in gratitude. "Thank you once more."

Ty looked at Echoes as she approached them. "Be safe," he said. "All of you."

* * *

The park Ty recommended wasn't like the one in the other city. It didn't have any burrows, but wild pokémon either made makeshift shelters or dug themselves one. Echoes found one almost comfortable enough for all five of them and dug out some extra space. Evening found some bedding to make nests with, mostly containing leaves and moss, but an impressive find of mareep wool made the den extra cozy.

When she took breaks from digging and arranging bedding, Echoes noted some pokémon standing at the border. They stood facing outward, ignoring humans and other pokémon who passed them. Only once did Echoes see a luxray trade places with a floatzel standing around. The weavile pondered what the idling pokémon were doing as she continued her work.

By the time they were finished, the sneasels had befriended some of the local young pokémon. Echoes found them playing with three shinx, two buizels, an eevee, and ten bunearys. They seemed to be playing some form of tag, but Echoes paid it no mind. The playing children reminded her of something she needed to tell her mate.

"Sweet?" the weavile called.

Evening looked up from grooming himself, tufts of fur strewn around him as he removed his winter coat. "Yes?"

"I have some news for you."

The absol sat upright and nodded. Echoes neared his side and rubbed her face on his shoulder. He returned the gesture by sinking into her side.

"I'm going to have another clutch."

Evening took in a sharp breath, backing away. "Really?" he asked, awe in his voice.

She nodded, remembering the look on his face when she first told him she was expecting their first clutch just nine months ago. He looked even more elated than he had the first time. She remembered the hint of fear that grazed his face the first time, likely fearful of what Freya would do to him if she found out who the father was. Here, he did seem a tiny bit fearful, but Echoes suspected it wasn't for the new clutch's parentage this time.

The weavile touched his forehead with her own. "Sweet, we'll find a way to make it work out."

She opened her eyes to find his bright red eyes staring into hers.

"I hope so, Plume." He gave her forehead a single lick, then turned to the field where the sneasels played with the other pokémon. "When should we tell them?"

"Soon enough," Echoes answered. "But I want to tell you about those sneasels by the airport."

The absol looked her way. "What about them?"

"You see," she began. "I had a dream not too long ago where a dreamwalker took me to see these sneasels. She showed me how they've had to dig around in the trash to feed themselves. One of them sacrificed his feather to give his clutchmates proper food. The dreamwalker showed me that one of them was sick… There were six siblings in the dream, but now there's five. She died, Evening. _They lost their sister_. They were human's pokémon, and here they are, struggling to survive on filthy streets with no one to care for them except each other."

Evening gave a slow nod. "Let me guess: you want to help them somehow?"

"Yes!"

"And your suggestion is?"

Echoes paused. She'd considered her options ever since the dream, and even more so while arranging the den. "I think we should take them along with us to my pack."

Evening raised a brow. "That's…something we'll have to think about."

"I know, but I don't want them to die off and get themselves hurt."

Evening stared off in the direction of the airport, sitting down. "What was that houndoom there for? I noticed her intimidating you, but Ty was already giving me directions to this park."

The weavile sighed. "Apparently, the sneasels made some sort of agreement with a gang with a persian leader named Pyroar."

"Wait." He gave her a puzzled look. "He's not a pyroar?"

"No, he's not. I saw so in my dream. I saw one of the sneasels offer up his feather to Pyroar in exchange for food."

"Huh," Evening hummed. He turned back to the pokémon playing in the field. "This agreement with Pyroar may cause some complications, then."

Echoes nodded, sitting by her mate's side. "They may. Hopefully, we'll figure out how to get them to come if we decide we're going to bring them along."

"I'll think about what we could do."

"And that's why I told you," she replied, smiling at him. She twined her longer tail around his, leaning into his side. "Because we can work better together."

Evening exhaled and leaned into her as well. "So we can."

The two watched their cubs at play until it was time to eat and sleep.


	20. Seen in Farther Lands

**Chapter Twenty - Seen in Farther Lands**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

Evening patrolled a familiar stretch of land. It resembled the lands he walked when he was younger, more naive, and completely oblivious to the world he lived in. He was rather fond of the dreams of his homeland, if only for the scenery. The pokémon who lived there never manifested themselves in his patrols of the borders. Not a single absol showed their face; neither did any prey, such as pachirisu or swinub.

And he enjoyed the lack of voices.

Only the wind, sky, and snow were his friends.

He paced along, surveying the land of rocks and ice. To his left, gold and rose rays shone through evergreen trees. Evening knew what the quiet sentinels hid for now. They'd reveal it in only a moment.

The absol paced along, the wind singing familiar, yet foreign songs. He found the part in the trees and looked to the left, seeing the sight he loved to see.

The sun blazed with pink as it summoned the dawn. Clouds crowned its head, glowing gold and rimmed with violet. Its warm rays brushed against Evening's fur, making him glow with the morning light.

Evening laid down, watching the sun make its ascent over the horizon and show its power and beauty.

He watched.

And he heard another voice.

He whipped his head to the path he came from. Whatever it was, he wanted to know. The absol stood, then crouched to stalk up on whatever made the cry.

As he neared the shadows of the evergreens, he heard hushed voices―two of them. One sounded vaguely familiar, the other completely unfamiliar. Evening couldn't make out what they said, but the tone in their voices seemed to be argumentative. He heard a bit of scuffling and a yelp from the unfamiliar voice, then a hiss in annoyance. Two sets of feet scurried away and stopped.

Evening listened out for any more movement or voices, but found none. He remained wary for a moment, then turned back to continue his patrol route.

He passed the viewpoint without stopping. Only a glance at the glorious colors was enough for him.

As he walked, he remembered the old fallen cedar down the valley. The absol detoured from his usual route and referenced the layout of the pack's territory in his head. If he were correct, the log would be down the valley in the shade of the iced forest.

After a short walk, he found it. Every detail was as he remembered from his first year and a half of life, except slightly smaller due to his growth. The rays of early sunlight filtered through iced leaves, illuminating the log and surrounding area with the elegance of winter.

The leaves reminded him of the lethality of winter, too.

Evening noted of a fallen branch and the tree it used to be attached to. He remembered witnessing one of his aunt's demise to the branch after she took the absol cubs out to play at the cedar log. It was after a long, violent icestorm. Everyone took shelter in the southern camp. Prey dwindled to scraps of meat on bones. Three absols froze to death, two younger than a year old.

When winter's curse lifted, Evening's aunt, Golden Aurora, offered to take the cubs out to play. Several others came with her to help watch the seven cubs at the time. Evening remembered seeing the dangling branch and occasionally hearing a crack from the breaking ice and wood. Aurora just so happened to be sitting in the wrong place when the branch fell and crushed her beneath it. Her son, one of the absols who came to supervise the cubs and happened to be sitting near her, only suffered some broken limbs.

It was the first time he felt that the world wasn't cruel just to him.

Evening ducked into the cedar's large hollow trunk. Even though cubs played in it, it could still resort to be a shelter in times of violent weather. Evening guessed fourteen full-grown absols could fit in it.

As he paced through the trunk, he remembered the delight when the tip of his horn had finally scraped against the top half of the log. It was a sort of rite the young absols had to determine which of them were worthy of playing chief or some other important role in their games. A cub took around eleven months to be able to touch it without standing on their hindlegs or raising their head, and Evening accomplished it at fourteen months.

He exited the log at the other end and turned around to walk back to his patrol route. As he neared the hill that bordered the territories, he noticed other footprints. They seemed to be of pokémon smaller than him and somewhat stupid―they didn't backtrack in their own footprints.

Evening growled and followed the footprints in slow stalk. All his senses he kept alert. Their scents seemed mixed, but he identified one. The other only smelled vaguely familiar. As he approached the source of the fresh footprints, he heard more hushed whispering and the rapid sound of crunching snow.

The absol snarled as he burst into a dash. Within heartbeats, he spotted two small figures running away from him, one dark gray and the other silver. He caught up to them in several strides and lunged for the silver one, claws outstretched. The silver one flickered in and out of existence before Evening pinned him to the ground with a low growl. The silver one yowled in fear and squirmed to free himself, but failed.

Evening turned his attention to the dark gray figure running away. "CHILL!"

The dark gray one stopped in his tracks and turned as his name was called.

Evening indicated him closer as the silver figure―a sneasel, now that the absol didn't have his mind on the hunt―gazed back and forth between the two.

"Wait a moment," the silver sneasel said, staring at Chill approaching them. "You know him?"

Chill made his way back, his head hung low. When he neared the absol, he looked up at him and pinned his ears back.

Evening tilted his head a bit forward. "Why are you here in my dream?"

The dark gray sneasel furrowed his brows. "Dream?"

The silver sneasel gave an equally confused stare.

"Right," Evening muttered. "Isn't as lucid…" He shook his head and released the silver sneasel beneath his paw. "This is a dream. _My_ dream. What are you, and _especially you_ ―" he gave a firm glare to the silver sneasel "―doing in _my dream_?"

The silver sneasel shied away. "I-I don't know! I just sometimes dream of this place and I want to see what's going on and then I see you and I don't want to get caught in case if you were violent so I―"

"Enough, I get it." Evening looked at Chill. "And what about you?"

Chill shrugged. "It's about the same."

"How long have you two been following me?"

"This is the first time I've seen him!" both sneasels barked, gesturing to the other. They both shot incredulous glares at each other.

"Who are you two?" the silver sneasel hissed. "How do you know each other?"

Chill glanced at Evening before meeting the silver sneasel's gaze. "He's my father."

The silver sneasel raised his brows in surprise. "Well, that explains the feather being on the wrong ear."

The dark gray sneasel stared at the absol, then turned back to the silver sneasel. "Who are you?"

He hesitated, then said, "Quartz. And you are?"

"Black Evening and Chill Wind Billows Mountain," Evening said. "But I'm called Evening and he's called Chill."

"And I thought the names the houndooms came up with were weird."

Evening decided not to take offense to the comment. Chill, on the other hand, felt otherwise.

"Hey! Our names aren't weird!" the dark gray sneasel hissed. "What even is a quartz anyway?"

"It's a jewel that can be found in a bunch of different colors and opacities." Quartz said matter-of-factly. "What does your name even mean? It's a cold wind by a mountain? Who names their kid―?" He caught himself as he cast his gaze to Evening. "It sounds weird."

The absol sighed and sat down, staring at his front paws. "Why are you two here? Sharing dreams doesn't happen unless one of the pokémon of legend, or a really powerful dreamwalker, ordains it." He looked between the two sneasels and muttered to himself, "I should ask Echoes if any sneasels hatch with powers…"

"Powers?" Quartz echoed. "Like what those psychic-types can do?"

Evening shook his head. "They're not exactly psychics, just pokémon who possess abnormal abilities."

Quartz gave him a confused look, then looked beyond Evening's shoulder. He widened his eyes and shrunk back.

The absol furrowed his brows in confusion, then turned back to where the silver sneasel looked. Dread flooded his senses, his claws instinctively clutching the ground.

A silhouette took the form of a black figure as it neared the absol and sneasels. The thin white face brought to mind a skull. Only one eye was visible, the other hidden by the fur hung over the face. The single eye glowed an ethereal teal. Black wings draped behind the figure, evoking power and majesty.

As it neared them with slow, methodical steps, it spoke words so archaic, Evening had to process them before understanding what they meant.

 _ **I am the Bringer of Sunlight.**_  
 _ **Sleep in my sweet dreams.**_  
 _ **Sleep in my worlds of terror and I shall revel in the screams.**_

 _ **Bringer of Comfort.**_  
 _ **Rest in my shade.**_  
 _ **In the cold of a quiet night, I am rage.**_

 _ **Bringer of Beauty.**_  
 _ **Shed all thy tears.**_  
 _ **In my wake are all dark things and fears.**_

 _ **I am the Queen of the Night.**_  
 _ **I am the Dark Moon Sentinel.**_  
 _ **I am the Firstborn of Shadows.**_  
 _ **I am the Bringer of Nightmares.**_

It was _her_.

Chill and Quartz took shelter behind Evening, both trembling.

"What's that, Da?" Chill whispered.

Evening sighed. "Something I've needed to overcome." He bristled as he faced the greater absol. "Why are you here, Bringer of Nightmares?"

The black figure frowned. **_Why do you think so, Black Evening?_**

"Why is her mouth not moving?" Quartz whispered with fear in his voice.

"It's a dream, karp-brain," Chill hissed back. "Dreams don't follow real-world rules."

"Hush!" Evening glared at the two. "Don't say anything." He focused on the greater absol in front of him. "I asked your motive for a reason, Bringer of Nightmares. Why are you here?"

She sighed. **_Why do you not trust me, Black Evening? What have I done to make you feel ill of me?_**

He growled, wishing his son and a stranger weren't there to overhear such a sensitive topic. "You threatened my mate to raise my cubs without her love by her side. You threatened my children to never know their father. You threatened my family with death by vengeful claws like the egg they crushed to instill fear into my mate and myself!"

Chill let out a short gasp. Evening turned and realized what he had said.

"I had another sibling?"

The greater absol smiled at the dark gray sneasel. **_Sweet Son of the Oracle, there are many things your father has not told you._**

"How dare you!" Evening hissed. "I would have told him when I thought it appropriate!"

She ignored him and neared his right, the side where Chill hid under. **_Do you know what happened when your sister was killed in her egg? Do you?_**

Chill backed under his father, his eyes wide and his head shaking with fear.

"Stop this!" the lesser absol hissed, his blood boiling.

 ** _Your father killed four pokémon in retribution._**

Evening roared in anger and lunged at the greater absol. He knocked her onto a wrestle, clutching her around her neck and fastening his teeth into her ear. She squirmed loose and kicked him away with both hind feet, ripping part of her ear. Evening hissed as her claws struck the scar on his belly. He tumbled onto the snow, but recomposed himself into an aggressive stance, fur fluffed up, ears pinned back, and teeth bared.

 ** _What are you going to do about it, Black Evening?_** the greater absol hissed, her outspread wings making her thrice the size of her lesser kin. **_Kill me? You know that's impossible. I'd demonstrate, but I don't feel like giving these two a horrific sight._**

Evening darted his gaze to the two sneasels huddled in the snow, both trying to act like unassuming rocks. He turned back to her and growled, gas rising in his throat. "Why do you do this? Every time I put the past behind me, you bring it back to the forefront!"

"Da?" Chill stepped out to Evening's side. "Is it true?"

The lesser absol looked to his son, reading the fear and disbelief in the sneasel's red eyes.

"Tell me, Da."

Evening lingered. He knew one choice might make a divide between him and his son, but the other would no matter what he tried to do.

"It's true, Chill."

The dark gray sneasel exhaled, staring at the ground. He didn't say anything.

The absol knelt down in front of him. "The pokémon I killed were intruders. They were going to kill your mother and they threatened you and your siblings. They'd already smashed your sister's egg, you and your siblings would be next. If I hadn't killed them, you wouldn't be here to have this conversation. And you know what?"

The dark gray sneasel looked up at his father, but said nothing.

"If someone were to threaten your life and no other option is available, I'd kill if it meant saving you. Because I love you and I don't want you hurt."

Chill still kept quiet.

After a while, Quartz broke the silence. "I wish my mom loved me enough to kill if it meant protecting me and my siblings…"

Chill looked over at the silver sneasel, as did Evening and the greater absol.

 _ **Tell us more, Quartz of a Thousand Hues.**_

Quartz gave her an odd look, then neared the others to speak. "My mom was bred for contest beauty and our coordinator wanted her to have some sneasels to continue the perfect traits. Her first clutch was a success―eight sneasels with four being up to contest standards. The second was even better―ten with eight of them perfect for cool and tough competitions. The third clutch was pitiful―only six sneasels with none of us measuring up. As soon as we were 'old enough to take care of ourselves', our coordinator dumped us on the streets before flying away forever. Mom didn't even raise a claw to help us. When we asked for help, she said, 'It's just the ways things are, my children.'" He shook his short coat out. "The way things are is awful."

Evening stared at the silver sneasel, remembering his history being similar to theirs. He then remembered his conversation with Echoes. "If you were given the opportunity, would you travel across the lands to those of your kind if you knew where to go?"

At his words, Chill blinked and looked up at his father. Quartz eyed the ground, sinking into thought.

A moment passed.

Quartz shrugged. "I'd be interested, but I wouldn't make a hasty decision." He looked up at Evening and tilted his head to the side. "Hold on… I think I've seen you before. You were…" He put a paw to his head, as if forcing it to recall his identity. "You were that absol standing across the street while the weavile with the weird name talked to us! You're with her, right?"

"She's my mate," Evening affirmed. "She's his mother." He gestured to Chill.

Quartz began a pace, eyeing the snowy landscape. "Where is this?"

"The land I grew up in―absol territory."

Chill eyed the trees. "It's beautiful."

The greater absol smiled. **_It is._**

The four stood in silence, eyeing the tiny details of the land.

Quartz broke the silence. "Why do you ask me if I'd like to be among my kind?"

"We're going to my mother's weavile pack," Chill answered. "I've never seen another sneasel besides my brothers and sister before, and I've never seen another weavile besides my mother."

"Would you like to join us?" Evening asked. "You could bring your brothers and sisters with you."

Quartz paused, lapsing into thought. "I'll have to think about it. My sister allied with Pyroar for the five of us to be his airport scouts in exchange for food and protection. He made all of us swear fealty. I've heard from the houndoom that runaways and traitors aren't treated kindly, though since we're new, we haven't seen anyone punished for it." He paused, then asked, "Can we meet up somewhere and talk about it?"

Evening nodded. "I guess," he said. "Where do you want to meet up?"

"There's a park with a willow and a togekiss statue just outside of Pyroar's territory. None of his eyes and ears are in that place." The silver sneasel looked at the dark gray one. "And I want him to come too."

The lesser absol nodded again. "All right."

 ** _Then everything is arranged?_** the greater absol asked.

Evening felt remnants of the gas in his throat and wished to unleash it, but he didn't and nodded. "If you wish to send us back, only send off those two; I still want to talk with you."

The greater absol waved a wing, stirring up the snow to cloak the sneasels. When the speckles of white drifted away, the two were gone.

She turned to him. _**What do you wish to talk about?**_

"You caused the loss of Slick. You told me to go out and assess the abandoned territory, which in turn made them mad, which made us leave earlier, which made us encounter the mandibuzz."

 ** _You found someone to blame._**

"You _are_ to blame!"

 ** _I am watching over him, Black Evening. He is safe. What more do you want?_**

Evening paused. "Can I see him?"

 ** _He is not sleeping. I cannot show him to you._**

The two lingered.

 ** _Do you want to finish your fight?_**

The lesser absol stepped away, gesturing with his tail for her to follow. "No… I just wanted to tell you that."

The greater absol followed him and flexed her wings. **_If you two are sleeping at the same time, I will connect you two together._**

"Are you manipulating the world to make those you've found interest in suffer?"

 _ **Now how am I to respond to that? If I say yes or no, you would resent me, but for differing reasons. I give opportunities to grow, but if you wish to suffer, so be it. It is your choice to accept or reject my trials.**_ She peered over the horizon, the sun still lingering over the mountains and valleys. **_Is there anything else?_**

Evening paused, then shook his head. "No."

The greater absol nodded and stretched a wing over him. **_Then enjoy your sleep._**

Darkness edged his mind and his thoughts descended into a dull hum.

 ** _Sleep, Black Evening. You still have growth to go through._**


	21. Those From Farther Lands

**Chapter Twenty-One - Those From Farther Lands**

 **Special Thanks to: Polarissb**

"Why does _he_ get to learn to hunt with Da?" Flurry grumbled, storming around the den. "He's the youngest! And even then, all of us should learn how to hunt at the same time!"

Echoes tried to stuff back the rage bubbling up in her and keep her cool about her loudmouth daughter. "Da said he's getting big enough he can start learning to contribute to the family. You and Azure will probably learn how to hunt together and perhaps in the next month. Either way, you still have your sentences to do." She gestured to the ice tablet Flurry held with crude words scratched on it. "Once you're done with your sentences and I've corrected them, you can go play with your friends."

The white-speckled sneasel gave an exasperated sigh as she scraped sloppy, jagged glyphs on her tablet.

Azure slammed his down triumphantly. "DONE!"

"Careful with that!" Echoes hissed. After the blue-feathered sneasel gave her an apologetic gaze, she picked up his tablet and studied it.

"Let's see here…" She squinted her eyes, trying to read the tiny claw-writing. "You've misspelled a few words and wrote some glyphs the wrong way, but it's better than last month. Very good, Azure!" She blew a meticulous cloud of frost over the tablet, erasing the mistakes and leaving the perfect work behind. "Let's do it together."

After an hour of correcting the sneasels' writing work, she supervised their play for a while before seeking out one of the adult pokémon for companionship.

She found a gardevoir overlooking two ralts and three kirlias at play, likely her own children. The gardevoir cradled a milky white egg in her arms.

Echoes approached the gardevoir, who caught notice of her, then gave a friendly smile.

"Hello," she said, nodding. "You're new to the park, yes?"

The weavile nodded back. "Yes, I am. I'm Echoes."

The gardevoir patted the ground beside her. "I'm Berdie. My beloved Kano is the leader of the park and these are our daughters." She looked to Echoes. "Do you have a family?"

"Yes, my mate's an absol called Evening and we have three cubs, two sons and a daughter."

Berdie nodded. "How have you come to this park?"

"Well, we heard from a human's pokémon that this park is safe from Pyroar's control. We're traveling through, but have to make a stop here."

"Where are you going?"

"Up north to the weavile packs. I'm expecting another clutch, so we're going to wait until the new cubs are at least a month old."

The gardevoir stroked her egg. "Well, know that since you want to join the park, you and your mate are going to have to contribute. That will include guarding the park, scouting the surrounding blocks, and catching prey for the carnivorous pokémon for the stronger of you. For the nurturing of you, this will include gathering berries, watching over the children of those working elsewhere, and patrolling the interior of the park to make sure there hasn't been a breach." She looked over to her children, then nodded. "Pardon me, Echoes."

Berdie placed her egg in a small hiding nook and stood, then neared her children. A young human had neared them and picked the smallest ralts up. Berdie neared the human and took her child in her hands, giving a visible tug. The human tugged back. Berdie made a purring warble, but narrowed her eyes. Again, the young human wouldn't let go. The gardevoir growled, bearing her teeth. The human let go.

Berdie gave a warble to the human in thanks as she picked up her child and returned to Echoes. "That's another thing you may want to keep your eyes and ears out for. Stupid humans that don't realize that sometimes we don't want our children to be held." She looked over at the human child now retreating to its mother, then sighed. "At least I didn't have to bite it."

Echoes looked over in the direction of her cubs playing with several other pokémon. Only two were there, and it took her a moment to remember Evening had taken Chill out hunting.

The two talked until Evening and Chill returned, both carrying murkrows. Evening set down his murkrow and nudged Chill with a smile on his face. "He caught that!"

Chill grinned up at his mother with all three tails shaking. His face said all he wanted.

"Good job, Chill!" Echoes licked her son's forehead and nuzzled him, making him chuckle in pride and drop his catch.

"You should've seen it!" he yipped, looking up at her. "It didn't even know I was coming and I made sure to stay silent, and then I lashed out with my claws and pinned it down! Then I bit its neck like Da showed me and it died!" The dark gray sneasel reared up on his hind legs, picked up the murkrow in his front paws, then held it out to her. "I want you and Da to have it."

Reminded of the sharing of catches the park pokémon held, the weavile turned to Berdie, now holding her egg, who gave a nod in approval. Smiling, Echoes took the murkrow. "Thank you, Chill."

"Excuse me, Evening, is it?" Berdie asked. When Evening gave a nod in response, she continued. "You can put your catch with the others' near the tool shed."

The absol shot her a quizzical look. "I don't think I know what you mean. I'm a wild pokémon by birth and if that's a human thing, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with it."

The gardevoir nodded. "Ah, my apologies." She turned to her daughters. "Kirkah! Zallie! Lilu!"

The three kirlias perked up at their names. "Yes, Mama?" the smallest of the three asked.

"Guide Friend Evening here to the catch pile."

Another one, the biggest, looked at Chill. "What about him?"

"That's for his mother and father. Now go on, the three of you."

The three kirlias turned eastward. "Come on, Friend Evening," the biggest said, beckoning him to come.

When they left, Echoes turned to Berdie. "Is there any form of a communal meal?"

"Yes, actually. Every other day, the whole of the park gathers to eat, except for those on guard duty. They eat slightly later. This would be a good time to meet everyone and find your role in the group."

* * *

Later that evening, about thirty or so pokémon gathered at a small wooded area. Each of them had a morsel of food and quietly talked with nearby comrades. Echoes looked among the gathered pokémon, seeing mothers, brothers, and others chatting about their day, comparing food, or watching the rest of the group in silence.

"Razzle, that is the last time you claw your prey! Do it one more time and I'll have you out of the park faster than you can spit sparks!" a luxray mother growled to her daughter.

The luxio spat sparks. "Dammit, Mom! I'm bored!"

Her mother slammed her massive paw on top of the luxio's sturdy, but small frame. "Don't curse in front of kids or elders!"

"Did you see the air Jett caught when he breached from the pond?! He nearly caught one of the birds!" a floatzel father boasted, holding his son in an affectionate head-lock.

"Pop―ack!" the buizel choked. "I can't breathe―!"

"What's this berry, Mommy? It looks hairy," a buneary asked, scrutinizing his green berry.

"It's a rabuta berry, darling," the lopunny mother said, stroking her son's curled-up ear. "Go on and try it."

The buneary bit into the berry, but his face scrunched in disgust. "How do you like this, Mommy? It tastes awful!"

"Father, I want to enact vengeance on my own behalf," a stone-faced riolu said, sitting with perfect posture beside her father.

"What has been done to you?" the lucario replied, his expression equally stone-faced.

"Jett pushed me into the pond while I was in deep meditation. It took me two hours to get to that point."

"Did you enact vengeance on him at that point?"

"No, I wished to hear what you thought before doing anything brash."

"I will have a talk with his parents, then."

"Will that accomplish anything, Father?"

"I will be sure of it."

"When's the egg hatching?" one of Berdie's ralts daughters asked.

A gallade, Kano as Echoes guessed, picked up his daughter and set her on his shoulders. "A few weeks, hopefully. Then I'll finally have my son!"

Berdie rolled her eyes. "I keep telling you, it's going to be another girl."

"No! It will be a boy! We've had five daughters already! We should be getting a boy _sometime_!" Kano placed a hand on the egg. "And this is sometime. I'll finally get to use Romu as a name!"

"You keep thinking that, darling."

Evening fidgeted beside Echoes, who'd lost count on how many times he'd done that.

"Sweet, is there something wrong?"

The absol sighed. "Too many all at once…"

Echoes rested her head on his shoulder. "Just pretend only I'm here. And anyone who talks directly to you."

"Hey, Absol," someone said to their right.

"Like him."

The two turned to find an espeon and umbreon staring them down, a single eevee cub sitting perfectly poised beside them.

"Where did you come from?" the espeon questioned, his dark eyes hard and imposing.

"We came from another region," Evening answered, curling his feet under him to get more comfortable. "Just yesterday, we did."

The umbreon cast a wary gaze at the two of them. "How are we sure you two aren't spies from Pyroar's gang? Or that you don't have anything shady going on disattached from them?"

"Hey, that's uncalled for!" Kano interrupted, glaring at the two. "They just came, give them a break! We weren't entirely sure you two weren't hostile when _you_ came here!"

The espeon gave the gallade a fierce stare. "He's an _absol_ , Kano. Don't you know what absols bring with them?" Without giving anyone time to answer, he added, "Chaos! Terror! Heartache! And I know who will cause it." The lavender pokémon stared at Echoes, his dark violet eyes piercing her gaze. " _Her_."

"Excuse me!" Evening growled, standing up with flexed claws.

"Haven't you heard of what weaviles hunt?" the umbreon added. "They don't just hunt typical prey, but also other sapient pokémon. And―" she turned to Berdie "―Eggs."

"What?! I'd never―!"

The gardevoir likely didn't mean it, but while she stood to rebuke the umbreon, she placed the egg a little farther away from Evening and Echoes. "Don't start throwing accusations! You haven't even met them yet!"

"I asked them where they were from," the espeon said.

"Do you even know their nam―?"

"He's Evening," the espeon interrupted. "And she's Echoes."

Berdie didn't speak, her argument void.

"Let's not stir up anger, Opulent, Elegant," Kano said, intervening. "Let's just eat and have a nice time. We'll get everything sorted out in the morning." He cast one more gaze at the two eevee evolutions and added, "If I hear one more wild tale or random guess about them out of your mouths, I will personally tear out your tongues and feed them to Pyroar's houndour!"

The two were silent throughout the meal.

Everyone else did speak, but in hushed tones. Echoes did get to know a former battle-bred floatzel and a contest-bred lopunny released into the wild, but she occasionally checked on the accusing couple. The only thing either of them said was from the umbreon to her son.

"You're not allowed to play with those half-breed sneasels, Supreme."

Echoes didn't catch anything else from them, but even that worried her.

When returning to their burrow from the meal, Evening let the cubs run ahead to talk with Echoes.

"I overheard some rumors being spread." The absol looked at her with restrained anger in his eyes. "Turns out, you were from a warrior clan and I was from a nearly extinct pack." He spat on the ground in disgust. "Lies."

Echoes sighed. "There's nothing we can do about it, Sweet." She entwined her tails with his. "Sometimes there's nothing we can do."


End file.
